Social cognition in bipolar disorder: the role of sociodemographic, clinical, and neurocognitive variables in emotional intelligence

Abstract

Objective The main aims of this study were to examine the differences in the Emotional Intelligence (EI), the emotional domain of social cognition (SC), between euthymic patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and healthy controls (HC) and to evaluate the contribution of sociodemographic, clinical, and neuropsychological variables to EI. Methods We recruited 202 patients with BD and 50 HC. EI was evaluated using the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). The sociodemographic, clinical, and neurocognitive variables that showed a significant association with EI were entered into hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Results BD patients obtained significantly lower scores compared to HC in the Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EIQ) and in the Understanding Emotions branch score. The best fitting model for the variables associated with EI in the patients group was a linear combination of gender, estimated IQ, family history of affective diagnosis, and executive function. The model, including these previous variables, explained up to 27.6% of the observed variance (R2 = 0.276, F = 16.406, P < 0.001). Conclusions The identification of variables associated with deficit in EI, such as male gender, lower estimated IQ, family history of affective diagnosis. and lower executive function performance, may help in selecting treatment targets to improve SC, and especially EI, in patients with BD.

Default Mode Network Connectivity Predicts Emotion Recognition and Social Integration After Traumatic Brain Injury

“…Participants completed a battery of neuropsychological tests sensitive to the primary neurocognitive deficits seen in TBI, including processing speed, attention, and executive functioning. These cognitive domains also have been shown to influence aspects of social cognition across various clinical disorders [e.g., (33–35)]. Therefore, we examined the potential influence of neuropsychological performance on emotion recognition analyses with a cognitive composite score, which was obtained by averaging z-scored performances on tests of processing speed, working memory, and executive functioning.…”

Cerebellar-Cortical Connectivity Is Linked to Social Cognition Trans-Diagnostically

“…Psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia (SZ) spectrum disorders and bipolar disorder (BD) with psychosis are characterized by substantial impairment in social cognitive processing (1)(2)(3), which is associated with poorer community functioning (4-7). Social cognitive impairments have been reported in people with SZ and BD across multiple domains including various aspects of emotion processing such as facial affect recognition and "higher level" emotional reasoning (8)(9)(10)(11)(12), theory of mind (8,(13)(14)(15) and attributional style (16)(17)(18). Some aspects of social cognition appear to be more severely impaired in people with SZ compared to those with BD including "higher level" emotion processing (19,20), theory of mind, and attributional style (10,21), although in general differences appear more quantitative than qualitative, and empirical methods such as cluster analysis have revealed subgroups of patients cross-diagnostically who share similar levels of social cognitive functioning ranging from intact to more severely impaired (11).…”

How to treat mania

“…Manic episodes in this population present usually with atypical symptoms, including erratic and non-persistent mood changes, irritability, recklessness, aggressiveness, and deterioration in behavioral and functional domains (7). Preserving social cognition and the cognitive reserve is of utmost importance in this population (92,93).…”