Belief Updating in Euthymic Bipolar Disorder
Description
Thirty-six bipolar patients completed the belief update task (Sharot et al., 2011) that estimates their ability to update beliefs in response to positive and negative information. The subsequent time in euthymia (i.e. free from any mood episode) has been recorded in months. We hypothesise that the learning pattern of bipolar patients and specifically their sensitivity to positive relative to negative information ("valence dependent learning") can predict the timing of their subsequent relapse.
Files
Steps to reproduce
Patients have been enrolled only when euthymic and in full remission (2 months) from any manic or depressive episodes according DSM-5. After completing the task, they have been followed-up at nearly monthly intervals for the next five years recording the occurrence of any major mood episode (DSM-5). Beyond the socio-demographic variables (age, sex, education) patients also filled BDI-II, LOT-R. We further collected clinical variables that might affect the relapse rate such as bipolar type, duration of illness in years, history of psychotic symptoms and psychopharmacotherapy.