Hypomanic-like experiences and spontaneous emotional mental imagery

Bipolar spectrum disorders (BPSD) are associated with frequent and emotional mental imagery, theorized to play a role in mood instability. However, we lack methods for measuring tendency to experience emotional mental imagery in daily life. The current study developed such a measure and evaluated the hypothesis that a high tendency to experience emotional imagery in daily life would be associated with higher levels of hypomanic-like experiences.

We conducted two rounds of studies to develop and refine a measure of spontaneous emotional imagery (E-SUIS) using factor analysis. We conducted a third study to test the relationship between E-SUIS score and hypomanic-like experiences. Participants (total N = 554, age 18-25) comprised an unselected community sample.

First, factor analysis indicated a unidimensional factor structure and excellent reliability (α=0.87) of our novel measure of spontaneous emotional mental imagery. Second, higher scores on a hypomanic-like experiences scale related to higher use of both spontaneous emotional imagery and spontaneous non-emotional imagery. Spontaneous emotional mental imagery significantly improved the prediction of hypomanic-like experiences over non-emotional mental imagery.

Only two mental imagery measures were included. To determine discriminant validity of the E-SUIS requires additional imagery measures or interviews.

Levels of hypomanic-like experiences were related to the tendency to use emotional imagery in daily life. Additionally, spontaneous use of emotional imagery appears to be a better predictor of hypomanic-like experiences in the general population compared to spontaneous use of non-emotional imagery.