Anxiety, stress and perfectionism in bipolar disorder.
BACKGROUND
Previous reports have highlighted perfectionism and related cognitive styles as a psychological risk factor for stress and anxiety symptoms as well as for the development of bipolar disorder symptoms. The anxiety disorders are highly comorbid with bipolar disorder but the mechanisms that underpin this comorbidity are yet to be determined.


METHODS
Measures of depressive, (hypo)manic, anxiety and stress symptoms and perfectionistic cognitive style were completed by a sample of 142 patients with bipolar disorder. Mediation models were used to explore the hypotheses that anxiety and stress symptoms would mediate relationships between perfectionistic cognitive styles, and bipolar disorder symptoms.


RESULTS
Stress and anxiety both significantly mediated the relationship between both self-critical perfectionism and goal attainment values and bipolar depressive symptoms. Goal attainment values were not significantly related to hypomanic symptoms. Stress and anxiety symptoms did not significantly mediate the relationship between self-critical perfectionism and (hypo)manic symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
1. These data are cross-sectional; hence the causality implied in the mediation models can only be inferred. 2. The clinic patients were less likely to present with (hypo)manic symptoms and therefore the reduced variability in the data may have contributed to the null findings for the mediation models with (hypo) manic symptoms. 3. Those patients who were experiencing current (hypo)manic symptoms may have answered the cognitive styles questionnaires differently than when euthymic.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings highlight a plausible mechanism to understand the relationship between bipolar disorder and the anxiety disorders. Targeting self-critical perfectionism in the psychological treatment of bipolar disorder when there is anxiety comorbidity may result in more parsimonious treatments.
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Randwick, NSW, Australia; Black Dog Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: j.corry@unsw.edu.au.
Justine
J
Corry
Melissa
M
Green
Gloria
G
Roberts
Andrew
A
Frankland
Adam
A
Wright
Phoebe
P
Lau
Colleen
C
Loo
Michael
M
Breakspear
Philip B
PB
Mitchell
D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012307:Risk Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
Anxiety; Bipolar disorder; Psychological; Stress