Impulsivity in Euthymic Patients with Unipolar and Bipolar Disorders

Abstract Background There is marked interest to research to find out the differences between unipolar and bipolar depression. Consequently we aimed to study impulsivity in euthymic unipolar and bipolar patients to find any difference. Aim of the Work Comparing impulsivity in euthymic major depressive and bipolar patients and healthy controls, to find out if these two different disorders have different impulsivity profiles. To find any clinical correlation with impulsivity scores in unipolar and bipolar patients. Subjects and Methods It is a cross sectional case-control study of 50 euthymic unipolar and bipolar patients and25 matched healthy controls. They were subjected to: Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV disorders, (SCID-I) to ascertain clinical diagnosis, Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) to validate euthymia. Barratt impulsiveness scale. Also general health questionnaire is applied for controls to exclude any psychiatric disorder and an information sheet gathering patient data was done. Results Regarding barratt impulsiveness subscales, the most affected group with non-planning impulsivity was unipolar depression group with Mean± SD (29.88±3.94). while regarding attentional impulsivity, unipolar and bipolar depression groups were similarly affected with Mean± SD (19.4±3.8). While regarding motor impulsivity the most affected group was bipolar depression group with Mean± SD (30.56±4.49). Conclusions Analysis of Barratt impulsiveness scale in our study revealed that the unipolar and bipolar groups scored almost the same on total impulsivity measures. The most affected group with non-planning impulsivity was unipolar depression group while regarding motor impulsivity, the most affected group with motor impulsivity was bipolar depression group. Regarding attentions impulsivity, unipolar and bipolar depression groups were similarly affected.