The belief that being high is a natural part of your personality predicts an increase in manic symptoms over time in bipolar disorder.

BACKGROUND

Several psychological models of bipolar disorder propose that certain types of appraisals can lead to increases in manic symptoms.

AIMS: We tested whether the belief that being 'high' is a natural part of one's personality and correlates with manic symptoms 4 months later when controlling for manic symptoms at baseline.

METHOD: This was a prospective 4-month follow-up design using self-report measures. Forty people with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder completed a measure of manic symptoms, a measure of appraisals associated with bipolar disorder, and a single-item measure, 'To what extent do you feel like being "high" is a natural part of your personality?', at baseline and follow-up.

RESULTS

The single-item measure showed modest stability over time and construct validity in its correlation with a standardised measure of appraisals in bipolar disorder. As predicted, the single-item measure correlated with manic symptoms at follow-up when controlling for manic symptoms at baseline.

CONCLUSIONS

The belief that being 'high' is a natural part of one's personality is a potential predictor of manic symptoms. Further research needs to study the potential mediating mechanisms such as activating behaviours, and control for indicators of the bipolar endophenotype.