The effect of positive mood induction on emotional processing in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder and controls.

BACKGROUND

Many studies have used negative mood induction techniques to investigate the effect of emotional state on cognitive performance but positive mood induction paradigms have been used less frequently. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of positive mood induction on emotional processing in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) and controls.

METHOD: Previously, we reported that positive mood induction using a novel technique based on feedback produced a longer-lasting effect in euthymic individuals with BD than controls (Farmer et al. 2006). Here we report the effect of mood induction on two tests of emotional processing, the Affective Go/No-go test (AGNG) and the Cambridge Gamble task (CGT), on which BD patients in the manic phase differ in their performance from controls.

RESULTS

Following positive mood induction, bipolar cases exhibited a positive emotional bias on the AGNG and performed more slowly than controls on the CGT, particularly when making more difficult decisions.

CONCLUSIONS

These data confirm that positive mood induction is more effective in individuals with BD than controls. They also suggest that alterations in decision making and attentional biases occur even with transient and subtle changes in mood in bipolar disorder.