Cognitive impairment in manic bipolar patients: important, understated, significant aspects.

Background: Bipolar disorder is a chronic mood disorder with episodic progress and high relapse rate. Growing evidence suggests that individuals with bipolar disorder display cognitive impairment which persists even throughout periods of symptom's remission.

Method: 137 bipolar patients met the inclusion criteria (depressive episode: DSM-IV-TR criteria for major depressive episode, HAMD score ≥17; manic/hypomanic episode: DSM-IV-TR criteria for manic/hypomanic episode, YMRS score ≥12, euthymic: 6 months of remission, HAMD score ≤8, YMRS score ≤6; and mixed: DSM-IV-TR criteria for mixed episode, HAMD score >8 and YMRS score >6) and were therefore enrolled in the study.