title: Neurocognition in bipolar disorders--a closer look at comorbidities and medications.
abstract: The last decade has witnessed a growing interest in the neuropsychological study of bipolar disorder (BD). This chronic mood disorder is associated with persistent neurocognitive impairments even during periods of euthymia, particularly in the broad domains of attention, verbal memory and executive functions. More interestingly, cognitive dysfunction seems to predict a poorer functional outcome among BD patients and thus represents an important target for future therapies. The aetiology of cognitive dysfunction is probably multifactorial, including gene-environment interactions with potentially confounding variables as well. Drug-induced cognitive adverse effects represent an important and difficult to examine confounder. This review provides an overview of selected aspects of neurocognition in bipolar disorder with a focus on the relative contributions of medications as well as medical and psychiatric comorbid conditions to cognitive dysfunction. Finally, recommendations for future research in the field are provided including collaborative studies with larger samples, observational follow-up studies, as well as randomized clinical trials comparing head-to-head the neurocognitive impact of different medications.
authors.affiliation: Section of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Valencia, CIBERSAM, Valencia, Spain. Vicente.Balanza@uv.es
authors.forename: Vicent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Balanzá-Martínez
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Selva
authors.forename: Anabel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martínez-Arán
authors.forename: Jos
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prickaerts
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Salazar
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: González-Pinto
authors.forename: Eduard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vieta
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tabarés-Seisdedos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D006801:Humans; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations