Elated or sad mood induction affects the attention of patients with a bipolar disorder less than that of patients with a depressive disorder

Introduction: The role of acute mood states as mediating factors in cognitive impairment in patients with mania or depression is not sufficiently clear. Similarly, the extent to which cognitive impairment is trait or state-specific remains an open question. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a mood-induction on attention in patients with an affective disorder.
Methods: Twenty-two depressed bipolar patients, 10 manic bipolar patients, 17 with a depressive episode (MDE), and 24 healthy controls performed the Attention-Network-Test (ANT). In a within-participants design, elated and sad moods were induced by an autobiographic recall and measured on a self-report scale. Subsequently, participants performed the ANT again.
Results: The modulating effect of the elated mood induction on attention was small. Only the MDE group displayed moderate improvements in selective attention and tonic alertness. Surprisingly, after the sad mood induction, patients with MDE improved moderately on phasic and tonic alertness. Phasic alertness was also enhanced in patients with mania. Finally, after the mood induction, patients with MDE showed the largest variability in attentional performance.
Conclusions: Results showed only small effects of mood induction on attention. This supports the view that attention deficits reflect trait variables.

引言：急性情绪状态作为躁狂或抑郁患者认知功能损害的中介因素，其作用尚不明确。同样，认知功能损害在多大程度上属于特质性或状态特异性，仍是一个悬而未决的问题。因此，本研究旨在探讨情绪诱导对情感障碍患者注意力的影响。
方法：22名抑郁型双相障碍患者、10名躁狂型双相障碍患者、17名抑郁发作（MDE）患者以及24名健康对照者完成了注意力网络测试（Attention-Network-Test，ANT）。本研究采用被试内设计，通过自传体回忆范式诱导欣快与悲伤情绪，并通过自评量表对情绪状态进行评估。随后，所有被试再次完成ANT测试。
结果：欣快情绪诱导对注意力的调节效应较小。仅MDE组在选择性注意与紧张性警觉方面出现中等程度的改善。令人意外的是，悲伤情绪诱导后，MDE患者的阶段性警觉与紧张性警觉均出现中等程度提升。躁狂患者的阶段性警觉也得到增强。最后，情绪诱导后，MDE患者的注意力作业表现变异性最大。
结论：研究结果显示，情绪诱导对注意力仅存在较小影响。这支持了注意力缺陷反映特质性变量的观点。