Mood congruence phenomenon in acutely symptomatic mania bipolar I disorder patients with and without psychotic symptoms

• Published in: Cognitive neuropsychiatry Vol. 18; no. 6; pp. 477 - 490
• Main Authors: Delgado, Vera B., Chaves, Márcia L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hove Routledge 01.11.2013; Psychology Press; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Affect; Attention; Biological and medical sciences; Bipolar disorder; Bipolar Disorder - complications; Bipolar Disorder - diagnosis; Bipolar Disorder - psychology; Bipolar disorders; Case-Control Studies; Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; Cognition Disorders - etiology; Cognition Disorders - psychology; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; Male; Mania; Medical sciences; Memory; Memory, Episodic; Mental Recall; Middle Aged; Mood congruence; Mood disorders; Neuropsychological Tests; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychosis; Psychotic Disorders - complications; Psychotic Disorders - psychology; Schizophrenia; Verbal Behavior; Young Adult; Mood disorder; Human; Affect affectivity; Congruence; Memory; Bipolar disorder; Cognition; Mood congruence; Psychosis; Symptomatology; Mood; Mania; Comparative study
• ISSN: 1354-6805; 1464-0619
• DOI: 10.1080/13546805.2012.744303

Bipolar disorder causes substantial morbidity including cognitive impairment. The objective of the study was to evaluate memory performance of acutely mania bipolar I disorder (BD-I) patients with and without psychosis. We also aimed to assess the mood congruence phenomenon upon memory. A cross-sectional study was developed with BD-I patients (19 with, and 12 without psychotic symptoms), and 27 age- and education-paired healthy controls. Memory tests were selected to evaluate memory/attention performance. A verbal episodic memory task with affective content (word span) was also applied. A significant difference was observed in the scores of the word span task with positive tone among the three groups, controlling for number of mania episodes (p=.042). Nonpsychotic BD patients presented higher scores. There was a statistical tendency for BD-I patients with and without psychotic symptoms to perform poorer than healthy controls in the delayed recall of the logical memory test (p=.069). Psychotic and nonpsychotic mania BD-I patients showed mood congruence phenomenon in a verbal memory task with positive tone in relation to the healthy group. Evidence of mood congruence was found in the nonpsychotic group suggesting a purer manifestation of the disease.