An investigation into social functioning and psychological processes specific to bipolar disorder

• Main Author: Pope, Marie
• Published: University of Newcastle Upon Tyne 2011
• Subjects: 616.895071
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.576536

The psychosocial impact of bipolar disorder is tremendous (Murray & Lopez, 1996). Those with bipolar disorder are less likely to achieve satisfactory levels of inter- personal and economic status in comparison to non-psychiatric groups (Coryell, Scheftner, Keller, Endicott, Maser, & Klerman, 1993; Bowden, 2005) and as these studies found, satisfaction and enjoyment in different domains is likely to be poor. A similar picture is beginning to appear with regard to psychological functioning. Cognitive and behavioural response styles have been associated with an exacerbation of symptoms; and fragile self-esteem and unhelpful underlying attitudes, such as perfectionism and goal attainment have been found to be detrimental to outcome (Goldberg, Wenze, Welker, Steer, & Beck, 2005; Mansell, 2005; Johnson, 2005; Lam, Wright, & Smith, 2004). Although recent models of illness (such as the integrative cognitive model, Mansell, Morrison, Reid, Lowens, & Tai, 2007), provide a framework for understanding relationships between psychological functioning and clinical outcome, social outcome tends to be linked with symptoms. It is proposed here that psychological processes may impact on social functioning beyond their association with symptoms. This study also investigated the less well understood area of implicit attitudes, and beliefs pertinent to bipolar disorder, particularly beliefs of self and illness. It is one study in which four aspects of psychosocial functioning are investigated. The results identified psychological predictors of poor social outcome, and indicated possible psychological vulnerability factors, such as implicit dysfunctional attitudes. The remaining two investigations focused on self-esteem in conjunction with objective and subjective accounts of illness, and highlighted the complex relationship between views of the self and illness. The study's results are reviewed in light of recent progress made regarding the role of cognitive styles and belief systems, and how these fit in with and expand current psychological models of bipolar disorder.