Deficits in tasks of executive functioning that mimic real-life scenarios in bipolar disorder.

TORRALVA T., STREJILEVICH S.A., GLEICHGERRCHT E., ROCA M., MARTINO D.J., CETKOVICH M., MANES F.

Conferencia; Ninth International Conference on Bipolar Disorder; 2011

Introduction: A growing body of evidence suggests that patientswith Bipolar Disorder (BD) have cognitive impairments evenduring euthymic periods. The main cognitive domains a!ected areverbal memory, attention, and executive function. Nevertheless,some studies suggest that at least a subgroup of euthymic patientsdemonstrate intact executive functioning in classicalneuropsychological tests, this could be due to the their lack ofreal-life, or ‘‘ecological’’ validity. The aim of our investigation wasto highlight the usefulness of incorporating more "ecological! testsof executive function in neuropsychological assessment battery inorder to detect specific cognitive deficits in bipolar patients withnormal performance in standard tests of executive functions.Methods: Nineteen euthymic BD patients and fifteen healthycontrols completed a classical neuropsychological battery andtwo experimental tasks to assess executive functions in highlydemanding cognitive settings that mimic real-life scenarios: theMultiple Errands Test -Hospital Version and The Hotel Task.Results: No significant di!erences were found between the groupsfor age, years of education, gender, or premorbid intellectualfunctioning. We have shown, as predicted, that the group ofeuthymic BD patients who had control-comparable performance inclassical executive tasks showed important deficits in more‘‘ecological’’ tasks of executive functioning of the type thatmimic real-life scenarios.Discussion: Together, these data suggests that the inclusion of‘‘ecological’’ tests in the assessment of BD patients can contributeto providing a more realistic cognitive profile of this patientpopulation, which will undoubtedly allow for a better design oftherapeutic and rehabilitation strategies that can help patientsminimize impact on real life settings.