An individual task meta-analysis of social cognition in euthymic bipolar disorders

Social cognition has been shown to be affected in bipolar disorders, even during euthymia. However, the social cognitive profile of this group of disorders remains to be ascertained, given that such a broad neuropsychological construct has not been systematically examined in bipolar subjects across different tasks. The aim of this study was to quantify the magnitude of patient-control differences for distinct social cognition assessment instruments: the Hinting Task, the Eyes Test, Faux Pas, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, and emotional labeling using visual stimuli.

Effect sizes were extracted from studies chosen according to more stringent criteria than previously used in systematic reviews on the topic and pooled by means of meta-analytical procedures.

No significant patient-control differences were found for the recognition of three basic emotions (happiness, sadness, and anger). Small but significant effect sizes favoring healthy controls (Hedges׳ g<0.5) were noted for emotional intelligence, the Hinting Task, the Eyes Test, and the recognition of fear, disgust, and surprise. A medium effect size (Hedges' g=0.58) was noted for the Faux Pas Test.

The possible effects of other neurocognitive impairments on social cognitive performance could not be explored.

On average, small-to-moderate differences may exist between euthymic bipolar disorder subjects and healthy controls regarding social cognitive performance, with mental state decoding being more preserved than mental state reasoning. The influence of clinical and neurocognitive variables, which may play an important role in the social cognitive outcomes of these patients, deserves further clarification.