Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, La Fe University and Polytechnic Hospital, Valencia, Spain; Mental Health Research Unit, La Fe Health Research Institute, Valencia, Spain.
Human-centred Technology Institute (Human-tech), Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
J Psychiatr Res. 2024 Oct;178:349-358. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2024.08.007. Epub 2024 Aug 8.
Bipolar disorder (BD) implies impairments in executive functions during euthymia that interfere in psychosocial functioning. Virtual reality assessments may confer advantages respect to traditional assessments in terms of efficiency and ecological validity. The aim of this study was to validate a novel Virtual Cooking Task (VCT) for executive functions assessment in euthymic patients with BD. This is a cross-sectional study in which a group of BD patients (n = 42) and healthy controls (n = 42) were assessed with the VCT and a battery of computerized standard tasks (CST). Additionally, the influence on psychosocial functioning of both forms of assessment, measured with the FAST, was investigated to check ecological validity. In BD group significant impairments in interference, working memory and sustained attention were found in CST and VCT respect to controls. However, deficits in planning and problem-solving were also revealed with the VCT. With respect to psychosocial functioning, only VCT variables were able to predict FAST scores at the assessment time. The VCT showed a greater sensitivity than CST to assess executive functions and real-life functioning in BD. This provides evidence about the opportunity to design novel cognitive assessments for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in BD.
双相情感障碍（BD）在病情稳定期存在执行功能障碍，影响心理社会功能。虚拟现实评估在效率和生态有效性方面可能优于传统评估。本研究旨在验证一种新的用于评估双相情感障碍患者病情稳定期执行功能的虚拟烹饪任务（VCT）。这是一项横断面研究，其中一组双相情感障碍患者（n=42）和健康对照组（n=42）接受了 VCT 和一系列计算机化标准任务（CST）的评估。此外，还调查了 FAST 测量的两种评估形式对心理社会功能的影响，以检查生态有效性。在双相情感障碍组中，与对照组相比，CST 和 VCT 均显示出干扰、工作记忆和持续注意力方面的显著损伤。然而，VCT 也揭示了在计划和解决问题方面的缺陷。就心理社会功能而言，只有 VCT 变量能够在评估时预测 FAST 评分。与 CST 相比，VCT 更能敏感地评估 BD 患者的执行功能和现实生活功能。这为设计用于诊断和治疗双相情感障碍的新型认知评估提供了证据。
