Autobiographical memory and its association with neuropsychological function in bipolar disorder

The aim of this study was to investigate the overgeneralization of autobiographical memory (AM) in bipolar disorder (BD) and assess its association with multiple cognitive domains.

Twenty-eight clinically stable bipolar I patients and an equal number of age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC) were included. All participants were examined using the autobiographical memory test (AMT) and the neuropsychological battery including the general intelligence, attention, verbal memory, verbal fluency, visual memory, and executive functions domain. Demographic, clinical, and test variables were compared between BD and HC groups. Correlation analyses of AMT scores with cognitive functions were performed within each group, controlling for demographic and clinical variables.

Total and negative scores of AMT were significantly lower in BD patients compared to HC individuals. AMT scores were significantly correlated with WAIS similarities, WCST perseverative errors, and WCST categories completed in BD, whereas AMT scores were correlated with verbal memory and verbal fluency in HC.

Our findings suggest that overgeneral AM is a characteristic of BD and is related to executive function. Future studies should investigate the benefit of additional treatment focusing on overgeneral AM in BD.