Research view
Title: | Social cognition in euthymic patients versus their biological siblings: comparability in mental state decoding and cognitive deficits |
Author: | Mohamed El Sayed El Taweel and Mohamed Khairy |
Abstract: |
Introduction
Recent studies on bipolar disorder (BD) have reported a deficit in social recognition
and emotional deficit even in the remission period of the disorder. Given that impaired
social cognition in patients with serious mental illness impacts on increased symptom
severity, prolonged course of illness, higher rates of relapse, and daily functioning,
characterization of the extent of these deficits is important.
Aim of the study
The aim of this study was to examine differences in social cognition insamples of
euthymic patients with first-episode BD type I, their unaffected biological full siblings,
and healthy participants, as well as to determine whether the between-group
differences reported above were mediated by clinical characteristics in euthymic
patients.
Patients and methods
The study included 90 participants: 30 euthymic male patients with first-episode BD
type I diagnosed according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,
4th ed.; 30 unaffected full siblings of the euthymic patients; and 30 healthy controls.
The three groups were matched as regards age, sex, education, marital status, and
employment. All participants were subjected to social cognitive assessment using the
reading the mind in the eyes (_eyes task_), to assess the emotional aspects of theory
of mind (ToM), and the ToM’s pictorial story tasks.
Results
The patients and their unaffected biological full siblings were significantly impaired in
social cognition relative to controls assessed using the eye task and the pictorial story
task (Po0.001 and <0.0001, respectively). Compared with unaffected siblings,
patients with BD performed poorly on the emotional and cognitive tasks.
Conclusion
Our study suggests that euthymic patients with BD type I have deficits in cognitive and
emotional ToM. In fact, it can be concluded that the deficits in social cognition may be
endophenotypic markers of genetic vulnerability to BD type I.
Keywords:
biological siblings, euthymic bipolar disorder, social cognition
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Journal: | Middle East Curr Psychiatry 24:8–13 |
Text: | |
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