Cognitive Impairment Mechanism in Patients with Bipolar Disorder

Yanxiong Huang,1 Zhilong Zhang,2 Shihao Lin,3 Haobin Zhou,4 Guiyun Xu5 1Department of Clinical Psychology, Affiliated Longhua People’s Hospital, Southern Medical University (Longhua People’s Hospital), Shenzhen, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2The First People’s Hospital of Huizhou City, Huizhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 3The Second Clinical College, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 4The First Clinical College, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 5The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Guiyun Xu, Department of Affective Disorder, the Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, 36 Mingxin Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510370, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-81268189, Email 13650774898@163.comAbstract: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a common chronic mental disorder usually characterized by manic, hypomanic and depressive episodes. Patients diagnosed with BD have cognitive impairments in both the mood attack and remission stages, that is impairment of attention, memory and executive function. Up till the present moment, the causative mechanisms of cognitive impairment in BD patients remain poorly understood. Several studies have demonstrated that cognitive impairment in patients with bipolar disorder is not associated with a single factor, but with gene polymorphism, brain structural and functional variables, inflammatory and metabolic factors. Herein, we reviewed and summarized the recent reports on cognitive impairment mechanisms in patients with BD. To prevent or alleviate cognitive damage at an early stage, we propose that future research should focus on investigating the pathological mechanism of specific cognitive dimension damage as well as the pathological mechanism network between the damage of each dimension. It is crucial to recognize mechanisms of cognitive impairment for improving the symptoms and prognosis of BD patients, restoring their social function and integration.Keywords: bipolar disorder, cognitive impairment, mechanism, attention impairment, memory impairment, impairment of executive function