David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Dysfunctional beliefs specific to bipolar disorder identified
By Liam Davenport, MedWire News
01 October 2009
J Affect Dis 2009; Advance online publication
Remitted bipolar disorder patients have unique dysfunctional beliefs compared with unipolar patients and healthy individuals, say UK scientists who believe the findings could help the development of specific behavioral therapies.
To date, cognitive behavioral therapy modified for bipolar disorder has yielded disappointing results. While differences in dysfunctional beliefs noted between unipolar and bipolar patients have been identified that could improve therapeutic approaches, until recently there has been no reliable method of assessing beliefs in remitted bipolar disorder patients.
Y Alatiq and colleagues from the University of Oxford therefore administered the Hypomanic Attitudes and Positive Prediction Inventory (HAPPI), as well as the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS) to 40 remitted bipolar disorder patients, 20 remitted unipolar patients, and 20 healthy controls.
There were no significant differences in terms of the history of depression or current depressive mood symptoms between bipolar and unipolar patients, both scoring significantly more than controls. Bipolar patients scored more highly on current manic symptoms than both unipolar patients and controls, with no significant differences between the latter.
There were no significant differences between the groups in DAS scores, whether in terms of total scores of any of the subscales, or after taking age into account, the team reports in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Bipolar patients had significantly higher HAPPI scores than unipolar patients and controls in terms of total scores as well as scores on the self-catastrophic beliefs, other negative beliefs, and response style, even after controlling for age. There were no significant differences between unipolar patients and controls.
The team writes: ?To conclude, the study has confirmed that bipolar patients when in remission hold dysfunctional beliefs related to the elevated mood experience which are found to be specific to bipolar disorder. Further study is now needed to look at whether cognitive behavioural therapy for bipolar disorder might benefit from working on such beliefs.?
Free abstract
By Liam Davenport, MedWire News
01 October 2009
J Affect Dis 2009; Advance online publication
Remitted bipolar disorder patients have unique dysfunctional beliefs compared with unipolar patients and healthy individuals, say UK scientists who believe the findings could help the development of specific behavioral therapies.
To date, cognitive behavioral therapy modified for bipolar disorder has yielded disappointing results. While differences in dysfunctional beliefs noted between unipolar and bipolar patients have been identified that could improve therapeutic approaches, until recently there has been no reliable method of assessing beliefs in remitted bipolar disorder patients.
Y Alatiq and colleagues from the University of Oxford therefore administered the Hypomanic Attitudes and Positive Prediction Inventory (HAPPI), as well as the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS) to 40 remitted bipolar disorder patients, 20 remitted unipolar patients, and 20 healthy controls.
There were no significant differences in terms of the history of depression or current depressive mood symptoms between bipolar and unipolar patients, both scoring significantly more than controls. Bipolar patients scored more highly on current manic symptoms than both unipolar patients and controls, with no significant differences between the latter.
There were no significant differences between the groups in DAS scores, whether in terms of total scores of any of the subscales, or after taking age into account, the team reports in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Bipolar patients had significantly higher HAPPI scores than unipolar patients and controls in terms of total scores as well as scores on the self-catastrophic beliefs, other negative beliefs, and response style, even after controlling for age. There were no significant differences between unipolar patients and controls.
The team writes: ?To conclude, the study has confirmed that bipolar patients when in remission hold dysfunctional beliefs related to the elevated mood experience which are found to be specific to bipolar disorder. Further study is now needed to look at whether cognitive behavioural therapy for bipolar disorder might benefit from working on such beliefs.?
Free abstract
