Sustained attention and attentional impulsivity in patients with Bipolar I or II disorders

• Main Authors: Chian-Huei Kung, 龔千蕙
• Other Authors: Ru-Band Lu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/16415722624762674610

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 行為醫學研究所 === 96 === Background: Sustained attention deficit was the most commonly reported impairments in bipolar disorder. The goal of this study was to compare the sustained attention of inter-episode patients with BP I to those with BP II disorder. Methods: 51 patients with bipolar disorder (22 BP I and 29 BP II) and 20 healthy controls participated in this study and were tested with Conners' Continuous Performance Test-II (CPT). Psychiatric symptoms were assessed with the 17-item Hamilton depression rating scale and Young Mania Rating Scale. Results: A significant and negative relation was shown merely between years of education and omission errors in patients with BP I and BP II (r=-0.320, p＜0.01). Patients with BP I had a significantly longer response latency (F(2,68)=7.648, p=0.001) (reaction time, RT), RT standard error (F(2,68)=5.252, p=0.008), worse d’ (F(2,68)=6.313, p=0.003) and more commission errors (F(2,68)=6.182, p=0.004) than those with BP II and healthy controls. No significant difference was found among these three groups on omission errors and no significant correlations were observed between CPT performance and clinical characteristics in these three groups. Limitations: A longitudinal follow-up study design and larger sample size might provide more information on whether sustained attention deficit in BP patients is a premorbid issue or not and might have illustrated clearer differences between the three groups. Conclusions: These findings suggested that impairments in sustained attention might be more representative of BP I than BP II, even after controlling for the severity of symptoms, age, years of education and reaction time.