Cognitive Decline In Major Depression And Bipolar Disorder.

Functional impairment and the loss of memory. Can we get it back?

Cognitive functioning in many mental illnesses runs the full breadth of human potential. In particular with regard to mood disorders.

Where some people with bipolar accomplish poignant landmarks in human achievement, others experience significant difficulties in managing the tasks of daily life. The disparate functional variability in mood disorders points to a prognostic complexity, which is not immediately evident in the diagnosis. In these heterogeneous illnesses, clinicians cannot predict how one’s clinical and functional trajectory will differ from another.

Many studies have cast light upon various aspects of illness progression in bipolar disorder, yet significant understanding, and improvement to functional outcome I think, requires further theoretical and clinical advancement.

Iwas sitting in a meeting room in my office the other day, chatting to colleagues and I am immobilised by my inability to follow the conversation. No, I am not nervous, or shy, or feeling like I don’t belong — this is not a function of my underlying anxiety. Something is afoot in my brain; a gradual but persistent decline in my cognitive agility.