A cross-sectional study of cognitive performance in bipolar disorder across the lifespan: the cog-BD project

• Published in: Psychological medicine Vol. 53; no. 13; pp. 6316 - 6324
• Main Authors: Jones, Brett D. M., Fernandes, Brisa S., Husain, M. Ishrat, Ortiz, Abigail, Rajji, Tarek K., Blumberger, Daniel M., Butters, Meryl A., Gildengers, Ariel G., Shablinski, Tatiana, Voineskos, Aristotle, Mulsant, Benoit H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.10.2023
• Subjects: Age; Age differences; Aging; Attention; Bipolar disorder; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive ability; Cohort analysis; Cross-sectional studies; Drug use; Electroconvulsive therapy; Executive function; Intelligence tests; Life span; Medical diagnosis; Memory; Mental disorders; Neurological disorders; Neuropsychology; Older people; Original; Original Article; Problem solving; Psychosis; Schizophrenia; Short term memory; Social cognition; Social interactions; Spatial memory; Stroop task; Tests; Variance analysis; Verbal learning; Verbal memory; Vigilance; Visual memory; Bipolar disorder; mood disorder; cognition; geriatric psychiatry
• ISSN: 0033-2917; 1469-8978
• DOI: 10.1017/S0033291722003622

Abstract Background Neuroprogressive models of the trajectory of cognitive dysfunction in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) have been proposed. However, few studies have explored the relationships among clinical characteristics of BD, cognitive dysfunction, and aging. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional analysis in euthymic participants with the MATRICS Cognitive Consensus Battery, the Trail Making Test B, the Stroop Test, and the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading. Age- and gender-equated control participants without a mental disorder [‘Healthy Controls’ – HC)] were assessed similarly. We compared cognitive performance both globally and in seven domains in four groups: younger BD (age ⩽49 years; n = 70), older BD (age ⩾50 years; n = 48), younger HC ( n = 153), and older HC ( n = 44). We also compared the BD and HC groups using age as a continuous measure. We controlled for relevant covariates and applied a Bonferroni correction. Results Our results support both an early impairment (‘early hit’) model and an accelerated aging model: impairment in attention/vigilance, processing speed, and executive function/working memory were congruent with the accelerated aging hypothesis whereas impairment in verbal memory was congruent with an early impairment model. BD and HC participants exhibited similar age-related decline in reasoning/problem solving and visuospatial memory. There were no age- or diagnosis-related differences in social cognition. Conclusion Our findings support that different cognitive domains are affected differently by BD and aging. Longitudinal studies are needed to explore trajectories of cognitive performance in BD across the lifespan.