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Some fairly obvious distinctions between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
1Clinical Brain Disorders Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. GoldberT@INTRA.NIMH.nih.gov
Schizophrenia Research
|October 3, 1999
Summary
Individuals with schizophrenia achieve less high-level accomplishment than those with bipolar disorder. This review suggests neurocognitive differences, particularly in working memory, may explain this disparity between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- A higher ratio of "famous" individuals have bipolar disorder compared to schizophrenia.
- This disparity suggests schizophrenia may impede high-level accomplishment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore potential neurocognitive explanations for the difference in accomplishment between individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
- To investigate if cognitive task performance differs between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing neurocognitive findings.
- Comparison of higher-level cognitive task performance between patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
- Focus on working memory as a potential discriminating factor.
Main Results:
- Patients with schizophrenia consistently performed worse than patients with bipolar disorder on higher-level cognitive tasks.
- Working memory performance appears to be a key differentiator between the two groups.
- Bipolar disorder patients also showed impairment compared to healthy controls.
Conclusions:
- Neurocognitive deficits, especially in working memory, may contribute to lower rates of high-level accomplishment in schizophrenia compared to bipolar disorder.
- Further research is needed to address the effects of state and medication.
- Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder may share some, but not all, etiologic or pathophysiologic features.