A unique emotional processing profile of euthymic bipolar disorder? A critical review

摘要

Objectives: To undertake a critical review of the literature on emotional processing (EP) in bipolar patients in remission. This literature review focuses on a number of dimensions of EP including facial emotion recognition, emotional memory, affective theory of mind (ToM), affective attention and affective auditory information processing. Methods: A systematic search was conducted through PsychINFO and Medline databases to obtain relevant literature. Studies that include behavioural measures of EP were included. Results: The findings from this review demonstrate that bipolar disorder (BD) patients continue to exhibit some EP deficits during euthymic phases. A number of factors believed to contribute to such findings have been highlighted. Conclusions: This review has shed light on some of the conflicting findings reported in the literature and thus offers a more comprehensive profile of euthymic bipolar patients' EP abilities. This information could enrich clinicians' therapeutic efforts to minimise relapse by attending to euthymic bipolar patients' specific emotional processing difficulties. ? 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.