Cognitive Development in Patients with Bipolar Disorder and Metabolic Syndrome

Abstract

Objective: To describe and discuss current evidence on the relationship between cognitive performance, Bipolar Affective Disorder (BAD) and Metabolic Syndrome (MS).

Methods: We searched for related articles in different bibliographic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scielo) and performed a narrative review of the literature with the selected articles.

Results: To date, evidence has not been conclusive and the effect of MS on BD has not been widely studied, but important correlations have been observed with individual metabolic variables. It is suggested that obesity in patients with BAD is associated wotj worse performance in verbal memory, psychomotor processing speed, and sustained attention. Hypertriglyceridemia in patients with BAD appears to be associated with a lower score in executive function tasks; hypertension appears to be associated with impairment in overall cognitive function.

Conclusions: Despite the associations between MS and poor cognitive performance in patients suffering from BAD, more studies are required to precisely determine how these variables are related to each other.

Keywords: Bipolar disorder; Cognición; Cognition; Executive functions; Funciones ejecutivas; Memoria; Memory; Metabolic syndrome; Síndrome metabólico; Trastorno bipolar.