TY - JOUR

T1 - Increased sensitivity to positive social stimuli in monozygotic twins at risk of bipolar vs. unipolar disorder

AU - Kærsgaard, S

AU - Meluken, Iselin

AU - Kessing, Lars Vedel

AU - Vinberg, Maj

AU - Miskowiak, Kamilla Woznica

N1 - Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PY - 2018/5

Y1 - 2018/5

N2 - BACKGROUND: Abnormalities in affective cognition are putative endophenotypes for bipolar and unipolar disorders but it is unclear whether some abnormalities are disorder-specific. We therefore investigated affective cognition in monozygotic twins at familial risk of bipolar disorder relative to those at risk of unipolar disorder and to low-risk twins.METHODS: Seventy monozygotic twins with a co-twin history of bipolar disorder (n = 11), of unipolar disorder (n = 38) or without co-twin history of affective disorder (n = 21) were included. Variables of interest were recognition of and vigilance to emotional faces, emotional reactivity and -regulation in social scenarios and non-affective cognition.RESULTS: Twins at familial risk of bipolar disorder showed increased recognition of low to moderate intensity of happy facial expressions relative to both unipolar disorder high-risk twins and low-risk twins. Bipolar disorder high-risk twins also displayed supraliminal attentional avoidance of happy faces compared with unipolar disorder high-risk twins and greater emotional reactivity in positive and neutral social scenarios and less reactivity in negative social scenarios than low-risk twins. In contrast with our hypothesis, there was no negative bias in unipolar disorder high-risk twins. There were no differences between the groups in demographic characteristics or non-affective cognition.LIMITATIONS: The modest sample size limited the statistical power of the study.CONCLUSIONS: Increased sensitivity and reactivity to positive social stimuli may be a neurocognitive endophenotype that is specific for bipolar disorder. If replicated in larger samples, this 'positive endophenotype' could potentially aid future diagnostic differentiation between unipolar and bipolar disorder.

AB - BACKGROUND: Abnormalities in affective cognition are putative endophenotypes for bipolar and unipolar disorders but it is unclear whether some abnormalities are disorder-specific. We therefore investigated affective cognition in monozygotic twins at familial risk of bipolar disorder relative to those at risk of unipolar disorder and to low-risk twins.METHODS: Seventy monozygotic twins with a co-twin history of bipolar disorder (n = 11), of unipolar disorder (n = 38) or without co-twin history of affective disorder (n = 21) were included. Variables of interest were recognition of and vigilance to emotional faces, emotional reactivity and -regulation in social scenarios and non-affective cognition.RESULTS: Twins at familial risk of bipolar disorder showed increased recognition of low to moderate intensity of happy facial expressions relative to both unipolar disorder high-risk twins and low-risk twins. Bipolar disorder high-risk twins also displayed supraliminal attentional avoidance of happy faces compared with unipolar disorder high-risk twins and greater emotional reactivity in positive and neutral social scenarios and less reactivity in negative social scenarios than low-risk twins. In contrast with our hypothesis, there was no negative bias in unipolar disorder high-risk twins. There were no differences between the groups in demographic characteristics or non-affective cognition.LIMITATIONS: The modest sample size limited the statistical power of the study.CONCLUSIONS: Increased sensitivity and reactivity to positive social stimuli may be a neurocognitive endophenotype that is specific for bipolar disorder. If replicated in larger samples, this 'positive endophenotype' could potentially aid future diagnostic differentiation between unipolar and bipolar disorder.

KW - Adult

KW - Affective Symptoms/genetics

KW - Attention

KW - Bipolar Disorder/genetics

KW - Cognition

KW - Depressive Disorder/genetics

KW - Diseases in Twins/genetics

KW - Emotions/physiology

KW - Endophenotypes

KW - Facial Expression

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Risk

KW - Twins, Monozygotic/genetics

U2 - 10.1016/j.jad.2018.02.055

DO - 10.1016/j.jad.2018.02.055

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 29499503

VL - 232

SP - 212

EP - 218

JO - Journal of Affective Disorders

JF - Journal of Affective Disorders

SN - 0165-0327

ER -