Objective: Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with cognitive deficits, yet little is known about associations between cognition, vascular risk (VR), and age in this population. This study investigated whether BD patients with VR demonstrate stronger apparent age-related decline in inhibitory performance and processing speed (PS).
Methods: A full medical history was obtained for 34 euthymic BD and 41 healthy comparison (HC) individuals. The Delis-Kaplan Executive Functions Color Word Interference Subtests were administered to all participants to assess for inhibitory performance (condition 3) and PS (conditions 1 and 2). VR positive (VRPos) and VR negative (VRNeg) groups were created based on the presence of one or more VR factors.
Results: VRPos-BD participants demonstrated significantly worse inhibitory performance with older age, whereas age and inhibition were not significantly related in the VRPos-HC group or in those who were VRNeg. The same was not true for PS.
Conclusion: BD patients with VR may also be at risk for greater decline in inhibitory performance, but not PS, with age. Longitudinal studies are needed to further investigate the contributions of VR to cognitive decline among older BD patients.
Keywords: Bipolar disorder; cognitive aging; inhibition; vascular risk.
Copyright © 2017 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.