Rapid computerized assessment of neurocognitive deficits in bipolar disorder

The purpose of this study is to illustrate the clinical usefulness of a computerized neuropsychological battery for identifying neurocognitive deficits in adults with bipolar disorder. Participants were 47 outpatients with bipolar disorder who were individually matched on age, education, sex, and ethnicity to 47 control subjects from the Central Nervous System (CNS) Vital Signs normative database. CNS Vital Signs is comprised of seven common neuropsychological measures, and it generates 15 primary scores that are used to calculate five domain scores (Memory, Psychomotor Speed, Reaction Time, Cognitive Flexibility, and Complex Attention). There was a significant multivariate effect and statistically significantly worse scores for those in the bipolar group on all five domain scores (medium to large effect sizes). When using two or more scores below the fifth percentile as a cutoff for neurocognitive impairment, 42.6% of the bipolar sample and only 6.4% of the control sample scored in this range. A subset of outpatients with bipolar disorder has frank neurocognitive impairments identifiable with this 30-40-minute computerized assessment battery.