The association of duration and severity of disease with executive function: Differences between drug-naïve patients with bipolar and unipolar depression

Tao Yang; Guoqing Zhao; Ruizhi Mao; Jia Huang; Xianrong Xu; Yousong Su; Na Zhu; Rubai Zhou; Xiao Lin; Weiping Xia; Fan Wang; Rui Liu; Xing Wang; Zhijia Huang; Yong Wang; Yingyan Hu; Lan Cao; Chengmei Yuan; Zuowei Wang; Raymond W Lam; Jun Chen; Yiru Fang

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2018.05.051

The association of duration and severity of disease with executive function: Differences between drug-naïve patients with bipolar and unipolar depression

J Affect Disord. 2018 Oct 1:238:412-417. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.05.051. Epub 2018 May 29.

Authors

Tao Yang¹, Guoqing Zhao², Ruizhi Mao¹, Jia Huang¹, Xianrong Xu³, Yousong Su¹, Na Zhu⁴, Rubai Zhou¹, Xiao Lin¹, Weiping Xia⁵, Fan Wang¹, Rui Liu¹, Xing Wang¹, Zhijia Huang¹, Yong Wang¹, Yingyan Hu¹, Lan Cao¹, Chengmei Yuan¹, Zuowei Wang⁶, Raymond W Lam⁷, Jun Chen⁸, Yiru Fang⁹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Mood Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Shanghai 200030, PR China.
² Department of Psychology, Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan 250021, PR China.
³ Hangzhou Normal University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 311121, PR China.
⁴ Shanghai Pudong New District Mental Health Center, Shanghai 200124, PR China.
⁵ Department of Medical Psychology, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, PR China.
⁶ Division of Mood Disorders, Shanghai Hongkou District Mental Health Center, Shanghai 200080, PR China.
⁷ Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
⁸ Division of Mood Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Shanghai 200030, PR China.; CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai 200030, PR China.; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic disorders, Shanghai 200030, PR China.. Electronic address: doctorcj2010@gmail.com.
⁹ Division of Mood Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Shanghai 200030, PR China.; CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai 200030, PR China.; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic disorders, Shanghai 200030, PR China.. Electronic address: yirufang@aliyun.com.

PMID: 29909305
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.05.051

Abstract

Background: The aims of this study were to investigate the differences in executive function and the relationship with clinical factors between drug-naïve patients with bipolar depression (BDD) and unipolar depression (UPD).

Methods: Drug-naïve patients with BDD, UPD and healthy controls (HC) were recruited (30 cases in each group). All patients were assessed with Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A), Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression-17 (HAM-D), and Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS). Executive function was evaluated by Stroop color-word test (CWT) and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST).

Results: In the BDD group, only the CWT number of missing was higher than HCs (P = 0.047). In the UDP group, CWT number of correct was lower, CWT number of missing was higher, and the WCST indices were worse than the HC group (P < 0.05). The WCST percentage of errors (PE) and percentage of conceptual level responses (PCLR) in the UPD group were worse than the BDD group (P < 0.05). In the BDD group, no correlations between CWT and WCST indices and clinical features were detected after correcting for multiple comparisons (P > 0.05). In the UDP group, the WCST PE, PCLR, number of categories completed (CC), and the percentage of perseverative responses (PPR) were correlated to the number of mood episodes (P < 0.01).

Limitation: This was a small-sample cross-sectional study. The possibility of UPD transforming to bipolar disorder (BD) in future could not be ruled out.

Conclusion: Our results suggested only small differences in executive function between drug-naïve patients with BDD and UPD, but in this sample only the UPD group showed differences with HCs. The executive function of drug-naïve BDD patients may be associated with duration of current depressive episode, while for UDP patients executive function indices were significantly correlated with number of mood episodes.

Keywords: Bipolar depression; Drug-naïve; Executive function; Unipolar depression.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Bipolar Disorder / psychology*
Cross-Sectional Studies
Depression / psychology
Depressive Disorder, Major / psychology*
Executive Function*
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests
Young Adult