Bipolar patients often experience subjective symptoms even if they do not have active psychotic symptoms in their euthymic state. Most studies about subjective symptoms are conducted in schizophrenia, and there are few studies involving bipolar patients. We examined the nature of the subjective symptoms of bipolar patients in their euthymic state, and we also compared it to that of schizophreni...

INTRODUCTION Functional deficits are commonly observed in bipolar disorder after symptomatic remission. Social cognition deficits have also been reported, which could contribute to dysfunction in patients with bipolar disorder in remission. MATERIAL AND METHODS Twelve bipolar disorder patients in symptomatic remission (7 patients with bipolar disorder type I and 5 with bipolar disorder type I...

BACKGROUND Patients with schizophrenia show elevated brain levels of the neuroactive tryptophan metabolite kynurenic acid (KYNA). This astrocyte-derived mediator acts as a neuroprotectant and modulates sensory gating and cognitive function. We measured the levels of KYNA in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with bipolar disorder and healthy volunteers to investigate the putative involve...

There is an increasing recognition that bipolar disorder is associated with elevated mortality and morbidity rates. Although there are still some doubts whether schizophrenia impairs physical health more than other disorders, recent papers [1,2] have demonstrated that bipolar disorder impairs metabolic and cardiovascular systems as much as schizophrenia. Reported prevalence of metabolic syndrom...

OBJECTIVE Abnormalities in frontal lobe phosphorous metabolism in patients with bipolar disorder have been reported, but many of the patients studied were receiving lithium. In this study, medication-free bipolar patients were examined to determine abnormalities in frontal lobe high-energy phosphorous metabolism. METHOD In vivo phosphorous-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging was perfo...

BACKGROUND Previous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies in young patients with bipolar disorder indicated the presence of grey matter concentration changes as well as microstructural alterations in white matter in various neocortical areas and the corpus callosum. Whether these structural changes are also present in elderly patients with bipolar disorder with long-lasting clinical evolutio...

Childhood trauma has been suggested to be involved in the susceptibility to bipolar disorder. However, case-control studies are lacking, and the preferential implication and the dose-effect of different trauma subtypes remain poorly investigated. Two hundred six bipolar patients and 94 controls completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ; Bernstein et al., 1994). The CTQ total score was h...

BACKGROUND Persistent impairments in neurocognitive function have been described in bipolar disorder. AIMS To compare the cognitive performance of patients with bipolar II disorder with that of patients with bipolar I disorder and a healthy control group. METHOD The study included 71 euthymic patients with bipolar disorder (38 bipolar I, 33 bipolar II), who were compared on clinical and neu...

n contrast to the relationship between substance abuse and bipolar disorder, the relationship between bipolar I disorder and anxiety disorders is vastly underexplored, underappreciated, and certainly understudied. This inattention is surprising in light of the fact that anxiety disorders have the highest rate of comorbidity with bipolar disorder , exceeding the comorbidity rate even of substanc...