The Impact of Obesity on Cognitive Functioning in Euthymic Bipolar Patients: A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Study.

Objective: To determine the influence of body mass index (BMI) on cognition in euthymic bipolar patients and healthy matched controls in a post hoc study of 2 cross-sectional and longitudinal exploratory studies.

Method: A total sample of 121 individuals was examined, which included 52 euthymic bipolar disorder I or II patients (DSM-IV-TR criteria) and 69 healthy controls matched by age and gender, categorized in 2 subgroups in terms of body mass index (BMI-factor): normal weight (BMI: 18.5-24.

Are patients with bipolar disorder and comorbid attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder more neurocognitively impaired?

Objective: Research on neurocognitive impairment in adult patients with comorbid bipolar disorder (BD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is very scarce. This study assessed the neurocognitive profile of a comorbid group (BD+ADHD) compared with that of pure BD (pBD) group, pure ADHD (pADHD) group and healthy controls (HCs).

Methods: This was a three-site study comprising 229 subjects: 70 patients with pBD, 23 with BD+ADHD, 50 with pADHD, and 86 HCs.

The influence of cognitive reserve on psychosocial and neuropsychological functioning in bipolar disorder.

Cognitive reserve (CR) refers to the hypothesized capacity of an adult brain to cope with brain pathology in order to minimize symptomatology. CR was initially investigated in dementia and acute brain damage, but it is being applied to other neuropsychiatric conditions. The present study aims at examining the fit of this concept to a sample of euthymic bipolar patients compared with healthy controls in order to investigate the role of CR in predicting psychosocial and cognitive outcome in bipolar disorder (BD).

Comparison of immigrant and native-born population adherence to antipsychotic treatment in a Spanish health region.

Previous studies report that immigrants underuse psychiatric hospitalization services and are less exposed to antipsychotic medication. The objective of this study is to determine whether immigrant and Spanish native groups with psychotic disorder adhere differently to antipsychotic drugs. Retrospective study including two matched samples of 47 immigrants and 47 native-born patients with psychotic disorder admitted to a psychiatric Unit (2006-2007).

The impact of general intellectual ability and white matter volume on the functional outcome of patients with Bipolar Disorder and their relatives.

Background: There is substantial evidence that cognitive deficits and brain structural abnormalities are present in patients with Bipolar Disorder (BD) and in their first-degree relatives. Previous studies have demonstrated associations between cognition and functional outcome in BD patients but have not examined the role of brain morphological changes. Similarly, the functional impact of either cognition or brain morphology in relatives remains unknown.