Evaluating cognitive function in unaffected relatives of individuals with bipolar disorders: A meta-analysis

Available studies have evaluated cognition in the unaffected relatives of bipolar disorder patients; however, to our knowledge, there has been no quantitative analysis evaluating the foregoing association. Herein, this meta-analysis aims to provide a quantitative synthesis of the extant literature reporting on the association between performance in cognitive domains (i.e., executive function, attention, learning and memory or global cognition) amongst unaffected individuals of probands with bipolar disorders.

Online databases (i.e., PubMed, PsycINFO) and Google Scholar were searched from inception to 20 September 2021. Studies with unaffected, first-degree relatives of individuals with DSM-IV or DSM-5 defined bipolar disorders were included. The risk of bias was assessed using the ROBINS-1 tool, and the quality of the sources was evaluated using GRADE criteria. The results of the studies were quantitatively synthesized using Cohen's d effect sizes via a random-effects meta-analytic approach on JASP.

A total of 15 studies were included in the final review. Overall, results indicate that cognitive performance across all domains is moderately impaired in unaffected relatives of individuals with bipolar disorders (d = 0.488). Sub-analysis suggests there is a higher level of impairment in executive functioning (d = 0.612).

The identification of cognitive deficits in unaffected relatives of probands with bipolar disorders indicates that cognitive impairment is endophenotypic and a core disturbance in persons with bipolar disorders; future studies should endeavour to target cognition as a potential pre-emptive and prevention strategy of bipolar disorders.