Study Participants With Bipolar Less Able to Maintain Negative Mood
August 21st, 2012
Bipolar type 1 (BD) is characterized by periods of elation and extremely positive mood that is referred to as mania. These episodes usually countered by extended periods of depression. Although there has been extensive research on the depressed episodes, especially in comparison to the low moods experienced by people with major depression (MDD), there has been less attention given to the positive mood states of BD. These manic episodes can be the most devastating for individuals with BD and those close to them. During manic episodes, people behave erratically and take risks that they might not otherwise take. Some people with BD have reported spending their life savings, having dangerous sexual encounters, or binging on drugs or alcohol during manic states. As damaging as these episodes can be, the mechanisms that cause these euphoric but sometimes catastrophic episodes are not yet understood.
June Gruber of the Department of Psychology at Yale University in Connecticut has devoted much of her time to exploring the underlying conditions that contribute to BD. In her most recent study, Gruber chose to make positive affect the focus. She recruited 29 participants with BD, 29 with MDD, and 30 with no history of either condition and exposed them to individual cues designed to induce positive and negative affect. Gruber then assessed how long the mood states were maintained by the participants and examined how likely they were to ruminate on positive versus negative emotions. She also gathered baseline working memory levels to determine what influence working memory capacity had on mood maintenance.
Gruber found that prior to the study, the BD and MDD participants demonstrated impairments in overall cognitive functioning, but only the BD participants showed impairments in working memory. After they were exposed to negative and positive stimuli, it was clear that the BD participants were able to maintain positive affect for longer periods than both the control or MDD groups. However, they were unable to maintain negative mood states. Surprisingly, Gruber also discovered that the control group and the MDD group were relatively similar in their levels of negative mood maintenance. This suggests that individuals with BD could have deficits in negative emotional regulation that cause them to experience short periods of low mood and persistent periods of positive mood. Gruber added, “We suggest that future studies compare BD and MDD participants who score high and low on symptom measures to properly examine the relative influence of symptoms on emotion regulation.”
Reference:
Gruber, J., Purcell, A. L. , Perna, M. J., Mikels, J. A. (2012). Letting go of the bad: Deficit in maintaining negative, but not positive, emotion in bipolar disorder. Emotion. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0029381
Related articles:
Celebrity Revelations of Bipolar Help Reduce Stigma, Increase Understanding
Hidden Depression Among Us
© Copyright 2012 by www.GoodTherapy.org Tucson Bureau - All Rights Reserved. 
-
Find the Right Therapist
-
6 Comments | Click here to leave a comment.
Comments
I have always thought that the depressed state would be the most concerning, but now I see why so many fear the manic state possibly even more.
I don’t see how a manic state is so dangerous.If the person can somehow learn to control the feelings of doing something dramatic while in a manic state it seems to be a good thing to have BD!after all who wouldn’t like shortened periods of low moods?!
While this is good that they can’t hold on to the negative for very long, it is quite concerning that the positive and manic stages could persist for quite a bit longer. And reading about the dangers that could be caused by these mood swings, that could be highyl dangerous for not only the patient but for other members of the family as well. It is awfully hard to rationalize with someone experiencing this level of lack of control of their actions and behavior.
I agree with you wallis,this is not something to see as a positive as it has more negatives than positives.paul,it may seem like a good thing to not be able to hold on to negative moods but when the balance of your mood is not perfect it can often lead to problems,problems that can go on to affect your entire system, affecting not only you but also those around you.
Is that small sample size even statistically significant?
Those that inherit Bipolar naturally, have the following present:
Hypomania, depressive aspect, hyperthymic temperament, extensively high intellect (cannot be measured by any standards accurately), excessive quick learning curve… Extensively good memory recall, excessive sharp judgement, common sense (through learning from trail and error), high body metabolism and a very strong immune system.
Also thought process runs within nano seconds, to a maximum time of two seconds… Also a very creative imagination (creativity comes from).
Also the moods only destabilize and the depressive aspect gets worse, upon a traumatic events. When the depressive aspect get’s worse, that is when the other problems develop.
Leave a Reply
By commenting you acknowledge acceptance of GoodTherapy.org's Terms and Conditions of Use.