Cognitive features in euthymic bipolar patients in old age

Abstract

The cognitive profile in older euthymic BD cases is similar to the one described in younger BD cohorts. Our results further suggest that impaired processing speed plays a major role in the cognitive changes observed in BD patients except for deficits in episodic memory, thus providing strong evidence that processing speed and episodic memory are two core deficits in elderly BD patients.

Longitudinal analysis of cognitive performances and structural brain changes in late‐life bipolar disorder

“…Latter may be a primitive trait of BD (Bearden et al, 2006) or attributable to severe attentional deficits (Deckersbach et al, 2004). In older euthymic BD cases, we recently found processing speed and episodic memory impairment whereas working memory and executive functions were well preserved (Delaloye et al, 2009b). These patients obtained a significantly reduced cued-recall score compared to controls compatible with an Alzheimer disease related primitive episodic memory (Ivanoiu et al, 2005).…”

“…All these tasks have been described extensively in our transversal reports (see Delaloye et al, 2009b).…”

“…Whether or not the above-mentioned BD-associated cognitive deficits represent stable attributes or evolve with time is equally controversial. Early cross-sectional observations in younger BD cases indicated a positive relationship between the duration of illness and cognitive measures (Bearden et al, 2001;Schouws et al, 2007), yet two recent investigations in older cohorts did not confirm this point of view (Martino et al, 2008a;Delaloye et al, 2009b).…”

The use of the Clock Drawing Test in bipolar disorder with or without dementia of Alzheimer’s type

“…Previous studies evaluating verbal fluency in adults with BD produced inconsistent results. Four of these studies reported some degree of impairment in euthymic BD subjects 6,8,24,25 , whereas four other studies did not report any clinically significant difference between BD subjects and healthy controls 26,27,28,29,30 . On the other hand, studies exploring the performance of the CDT among BD subjects are sparse.…”

“…Cognitive functions such as attention, visual memory, mental speed, language and, to a lesser extent, visuospatial function were also implicated within the spectrum of cognitive dysfunction of these patients 5,6,7 . Cognition seems to be similarly impaired in BD across the life span 8 , and geriatric BD patients also show a similar pattern of widespread cognitive dysfunction 9 . However, the severity of cognitive deficits was shown to increase along with the duration of illness and a higher probability of detecting cognitive deficits in BD is seen among patients with early-onset disease or with older age 10 .…”