ABSTRACT
The study of neuropsychological functioning in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) is expanding rapidly. Indeed, there was a threefold increase in the number of peer-reviewed publications on this topic from 2000 to 2005, as compared with the preceding five-year period (Fig. 1). Although significant increase in publication rate is expected in areas of new exploration, the study of neuropsychological functioning in BD is neither new nor dependent upon the development of novel technologies. Rather, this increase in scientific interest is driven by a recognition that poor neuropsychological functioning in patients with BD is at least partially independent of mood state (1-5), that cognitive problems may contribute significantly to lack of full functional recovery from affective episodes (6,7), and that neuropsychological deficits may provide clues into the neurophysiologic and neuroanatomic abnormalities implicated in the pathophysiology of the illness (8,9). While it is unclear at this time how common cognitive impairments are among individuals diagnosed with BD, a significant portion of patients with BD complain of cognitive difficulties (10,11). However, formal neuropsychological deficits have also been documented in asymptomatic patients who do not complain of cognitive difficulties (10,11), indicating that neuropsychological impairments may be more widespread than clinical experience would suggest.
