title: Neurocognitive functioning in patients recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cognitive dysfunction in bipolar disorder (BD) is well established in the literature; however, there are few studies of neurocognition in patients early in the course of the illness. In this study we compare neurocognitive function in a cohort of first-contact mania patients with a healthy control group matched for age, gender, and education.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with a first manic episode (FM) (n = 34) or previous untreated manic episodes (PM) (n = 21) were neuropsychologically tested following their first treated manic episode. A total of 110 matched healthy control comparison subjects were also tested. The following cognitive domains were evaluated: verbal and visual learning and memory, attention, processing speed, executive functioning, and IQ. Results were corrected for speed of processing differences and were compared with previously reported results for multiple-episode BD patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  BD patients early in their disease course showed impairments in psychomotor speed, attention, learning and memory, executive functioning, and IQ. When controlling for speed of processing, measures of visuoconstructive reasoning and motor dexterity remained statistically significant. Eighteen percent of FM and 16% of PM patients were found to have clinically significant neurocognitive impairment. No significant relationship between clinical symptoms and neurocognition was found. The first-contact mania patients studied were found to have smaller neurocognitive deficits compared to multiple-episode patients in previous studies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Neurocognitive dysfunction is present in early BD and is clinically significant for a proportion of patients. Our findings also suggest that neurocognitive dysfunction may increase with illness progression.
authors.affiliation: Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. tone.hellvin@medisin.uio.no
authors.forename: Tone
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hellvin
authors.forename: Kjetil
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sundet
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Simonsen
authors.forename: Sofie R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Aminoff
authors.forename: Trine Vik
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Lagerberg
authors.forename: Ole A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Andreassen
authors.forename: Ingrid
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Melle
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D055815:Young Adult