Clinical and neurocognitive predictors of functional outcome in bipolar euthymic patients: A long-term, follow-up study

Objective: To identify clinical and neurocognitive predictors of long-term functional Outcome in patients with bipolar disorder Methods: A total of 32 subject who met criteria for bipolar I or 11 disorder were recruited from the Barcelona Bipolar Disorder Program and were assessed clinically and neuropsychologically at baseline. After an average 4-year follow-up, they were interviewed with the Functioning Assessment Short Test (FAST) to assess functional outcome. Multivariate analyses were applied to identify clinical and neurocognitive predictors of functional outcome. Results: The main regression model for predictors of overall psychosocial functioning identified subclinical depressive symptoms (beta = 0.516, t = 3.51, p = 0.002), and free delayed recall in a verbal memory task (beta = -0.314, t = -2.144, p = 0.041), accounting for 36% of the variance. Specific predictors of occupational functioning were, again, Subthreshold depression ( beta=0.435, t=2.8, p=0.009) and a measure of executive function, digits backwards (beta= -0.347, t= -2.23' p = 0.034). This model explained around 28% of the variance (corrected R-2 = 0.28: F =6.38, gl = 2, p = 0.004). Conclusions: Subdepressive symptomatology together with neurocognitive impairments related to verbal memory and executive functions are predictor variables of long-term functional outcome in bipolar disorder. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.