The relationship of impulsivity to response inhibition and decision-making in remitted patients with bipolar disorder.
Christodoulou, T;
Lewis, M;
Ploubidis, GB;
Frangou, S;
(2006)
The relationship of impulsivity to response inhibition and decision-making in remitted patients with bipolar disorder.
European psychiatry, 21 (4).
pp. 270-273.
ISSN 0924-9338
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2006.04.006
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BACKGROUND: Impulsivity, a core feature of bipolar disorder (BD), is a multifaceted concept encompassing failure of response inhibition and poor decision-making. Abnormalities in these two cognitive domains have been reported in BD patients but their relationship with impulsivity has not been explored. METHODS: Twenty-five remitted patients with BD completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) and performed the Hayling Sentence Completion Task (HSCT) and a computerized version of the Iowa Gambling task. The HSCT total errors scaled score was used as a measure of response inhibition while the gabling task score, which reflects participants' ability to make advantageous choices, was used a measure of decision making. RESULTS: Higher scores on the BIS attentional and non-planning subscales were respectively associated with more errors in the HSCT and less advantageous choices in the gambling task. LIMITATIONS: All patients were medicated. Healthy participants were not included. CONCLUSIONS: Viewed in the context of recent relevant studies our findings suggest that impulsivity, response inhibition and decision-making in BD may represent behavioural manifestations of the same underlying biological mechanism possibly linked to ventral prefrontal cortical function.