title: Interference control commonalities in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Whereas deficits in executive functioning have been widely reported in schizophrenia and, somewhat less, in bipolar disorder, few studies have addressed this issue in people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Importantly, no studies to date have compared the ability to cope with interfering information in all three groups of patients. Impairment in executive control has been associated with reduced daily functioning.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample included 20 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, 19 with bipolar disorder, 20 with borderline personality disorder, and 19 demographically matched healthy volunteers. Participants were administered two different experimental tasks to assess the ability to exert control over interference arisen from semantic memory or from distracting perceptual information.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The three groups of patients showed similar impairment in solving interference from semantic memory compared to controls. However, no psychiatric group showed impairment in controlling interference from distracting perceptual information relative to controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study shows, for the first time, that schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder entail a common impairment in exerting control over interference arisen from memory but intact control over perceptual interference. These findings reinforce the idea that similar cognitive functioning may underlie severe mental disorders sharing poor global functioning but with different patterns of symptomatology.
authors.affiliation: a Research Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, University of Granada , Granada , Spain.
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lozano
authors.affiliation: b Mental Health Unit, San Agustin Hospital , Linares , Spain.
authors.forename: M Felipa
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Soriano
authors.affiliation: b Mental Health Unit, San Agustin Hospital , Linares , Spain.
authors.forename: J Ignacio
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Aznarte
authors.affiliation: c Department of Psychology , University of Jaén , Jaén , Spain.
authors.forename: Carlos J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Gómez-Ariza
authors.affiliation: d Research Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, University of Granada , Granada , Spain.
authors.forename: M Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Bajo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Executive functioning; distracting information.; interference control; mental disorders; semantic memory