Background Our previous work revealed substantial heterogeneity in the cognitive Profile of bipolar disorder (BD) due to the presence of three underlying cognitive subgroups characterized as: globally impaired, selectively impaired, or cognitively intact. In an effort to determine whether these subgroups are differentially related to genetic risk for the illness, we investigated whether cognitive deficits were more pronounced in unaffected siblings (UAS) of BD probands within identified clusters. Methods Cluster analysis was used to identify cognitive clusters in BD (N = 60). UAS (N = 49) were classified into groups according to their proband sibling’s cluster assignment; comparisons were made across all clusters and healthy controls (HCs; N = 71). Results Three cognitive clusters in BD emerged: a globally impaired (36.7%), a selectively impaired (30%), and a cognitively intact cluster (33.3%). UAS showed a qualitatively similar pattern to their BD siblings; UAS of the globally impaired BD cluster showed verbal memory and general cognitive impairments relative to HCs. In contrast, UAS of the other two clusters did not differ from HCs. Conclusions This study corroborates findings from prior work regarding the presence of cognitive heterogeneity in BD. UAS of subjects in the globally impaired BD cluster presented with a qualitatively similar cognitive Profile to their siblings and performed worse than all other BD clusters and UAS groups. This suggests that inherited risk factors may be contributing to cognitive deficits more notably in one subgroup of patients with BD, pointing toward differential causes of cognitive deficits in discrete subgroups of patients with the disorder.

BACKGROUND.-Childhood adversity has been shown to exert profound effects on basic psychological processes well into adulthood. Some of these processes, such as those related to reward and emotion, play critical roles in moral decision-making. As a population with high rates of childhood trauma as well as heterogenous clinical presentation, individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) constitute an enriched group in which to examine the correlates of trauma and other clinical variables with moral cognition. METHODS.-62 euthymic BD patients and 27 controls responded to moral dilemma scenarios and completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. RESULTS.-Results revealed a main effect of diagnosis on moral decision-making only when both personal force and an intention were required, indicating a more utilitarian style in BD patients relative to controls. Several interesting patterns also emerged regardless of diagnostic status. Higher ratings of physical neglect were significantly associated with higher ratings of acceptability (a utilitarian tendency) across dilemma types, and a similar pattern was observed at the trend level for experiences of emotional neglect. Significant main effects on moral decisionmaking were also observed for sex, illness duration, and history of psychotic features in the BD sample.

Background Bipolar disorder (BD) patients encounter significant life adversity, which has contributed to bipolar disorder being a leading cause of disability worldwide. Studies suggest BD patients have more maladaptive coping strategies, some of which can impact their illness course. Yet research on which coping strategies most influence disability is lacking. Such research could inform cognitive-behavioral targets to improve functional outcomes. Thus, we sought to identify relations between coping strategies and real-world function in BD. Methods In 92 affectively-stable BD outpatients, we measured coping strategies via the Brief COPE, real-world disability via the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule, current symptoms, illness chronicity, and neurocognitive functioning via the MATRICS. Multiple regression analysis served to identify the neurocognitive domains predictive of disability for entry into subsequent analyses. Multiple regressions assessed how adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies influenced disability. Results Only one neurocognitive domain, verbal learning, significantly predicted disability and was included in subsequent analyses. Maladaptive coping significantly predicted disability while adaptive coping did not. Behavioral disengagement (giving up) and self-blame were the only remaining predictors of disability, after controlling for age, sex, illness chronicity, current symptoms, and neurocognitive functioning. Limitations The study was limited by the use of a self-report disability measure and a brief-form coping scale. Conclusions Results suggest that giving up and self-blame are significant predictors of real-world functioning beyond sub-threshold depressive symptoms. Our results in BD expand upon recent schizophrenia studies suggesting that defeatist beliefs negatively influence functional outcomes across the range of major psychiatric disorders.

Background Verbal memory (VM) impairment is prominent in bipolar disorder (BD) and is linked to functional outcomes. However, the intricacies of VM impairment have not yet been studied in a large sample of BD patients. Moreover, some have proposed VM deficits that may be mediated by organizational strategies, such as semantic or serial clustering. Thus, the exact nature of VM break-down in BD patients is not well understood, limiting remediation efforts. We investigated the intricacies of VM deficits in BD patients versus healthy controls (HCs) and examined whether verbal learning differences were mediated by use of clustering strategies. Methods The California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) was administered to 113 affectively stable BD patients and 106 HCs. We compared diagnostic groups on all CVLT indices and investigated whether group differences in verbal learning were mediated by clustering strategies. Results Although BD patients showed significantly poorer attention, learning, and memory, these indices were only mildly impaired. However, BD patients evidenced poorer use of effective learning strategies and lower recall consistency, with these indices falling in the moderately impaired range. Moreover, relative reliance on semantic clustering fully mediated the relationship between diagnostic category and verbal learning, while reliance on serial clustering partially mediated this relationship. Conclusions VM deficits in affectively stable bipolar patients were widespread but were generally mildly impaired. However, patients displayed inadequate use of organizational strategies with clear separation from HCs on semantic and serial clustering. Remediation efforts may benefit from education about mnemonic devices or “chunking” techniques to attenuate VM deficits in BD.

Cigarette smoking differentially affects performance on both general and social cognition in patients with BD as a function of psychosis history. These results suggest that there may be at least partially divergent underlying neurobiological causes for cognitive dysfunction in patients with BD with and without psychosis.