Open AccessWorking Memory Impairment in Euthymic State of Bipolar Disorder
Author(s) -
Atimukta Jha,
Deepika Joshi,
P Kattel,
Parashar Koirala
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of psychiatrist's association of nepal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2091-2862
pISSN - 2350-8949
DOI - 10.3126/jpan.v8i1.26337
Subject(s) - memory span , working memory , bipolar disorder , abnormality , psychology , audiology , correlation , wechsler adult intelligence scale , psychiatry , cognition , medicine , clinical psychology , geometry , mathematics
Cognitive deficits in bipolar disorders persist after the subsidence of active symptoms. This study was carried out to assess the working memory of patients with bipolar disorder in euthymic state.
Material And Method: Forty euthymic bipolar patients attending a tertiary care mental hospital with equal number of matched controls in terms of age, sex and education were included in the study. Working memory assessments was done using WAIS-III digit span subtest.
Results: The mean of total digit span test for case group was 8.48±2.04 similarly it was 10.33±2.32 for the controls. The result showed that the mean digit span of cases and control groups are significantly different (p value of < 0.01). The Pearsons correlation between the clinical variables and working memory test in euthymic bipolar patients (case group) was found that the total score for digit span test was negatively correlated with all other clinical variables However, this correlation was found to be non-significant.
Conclusion: The working memory impairment persists in remitted bipolar disorder patients and this may represent underlying trait abnormality not the state abnormality.