TY - JOUR
T1 - Deficits in attention to emotional stimuli distinguish youth with severe mood dysregulation from youth with bipolar disorder
AU - Rich, Brendan A.
AU - Brotman, Melissa A.
AU - Dickstein, Daniel P.
AU - Mitchell, Derek G.V.
AU - Blair, R. James R.
AU - Leibenluft, Ellen
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, NIMH. This funding organization was not involved in research aspects such as study design and conduct; data collection, analysis, or interpretation; nor manuscript preparation or approval. We gratefully acknowledge the subjects and families of patients and controls without whose participation this research would not have been possible. We also thank the staff of the Section on Bipolar Spectrum Disorders at the NIMH.
PY - 2010/7
Y1 - 2010/7
N2 - Studying attention in the context of emotional stimuli may aid in differentiating pediatric bipolar disorder (BD) from severe mood dysregulation (SMD). SMD is characterized by chronic irritability, arousal, and hyperreactivity; SMD youth frequently receive a BD diagnosis although they do not meet DSM-IV criteria for BD because they lack manic episodes. We compared 57 BD (14.4± 2.9 years old, 56% male), 41 SMD (12.6±2.6 years old, 66% male), and 33 control subjects (13.7±2.5 years old, 52% male) using the Emotional Interrupt task, which examines how attention is impacted by positive, negative, or neutral distracters. We compared reaction time (RT) and accuracy and calculated attention interference scores by subtracting performance on neutral trials from emotional trials. Between-group analyses indicated that SMD subjects had significantly reduced attention interference from emotional distracters relative to BD and control subjects. Thus, attention in SMD youth was not modulated by emotional stimuli. This blunted response in SMD youth may contribute to their affective and behavioral dysregulation.
AB - Studying attention in the context of emotional stimuli may aid in differentiating pediatric bipolar disorder (BD) from severe mood dysregulation (SMD). SMD is characterized by chronic irritability, arousal, and hyperreactivity; SMD youth frequently receive a BD diagnosis although they do not meet DSM-IV criteria for BD because they lack manic episodes. We compared 57 BD (14.4± 2.9 years old, 56% male), 41 SMD (12.6±2.6 years old, 66% male), and 33 control subjects (13.7±2.5 years old, 52% male) using the Emotional Interrupt task, which examines how attention is impacted by positive, negative, or neutral distracters. We compared reaction time (RT) and accuracy and calculated attention interference scores by subtracting performance on neutral trials from emotional trials. Between-group analyses indicated that SMD subjects had significantly reduced attention interference from emotional distracters relative to BD and control subjects. Thus, attention in SMD youth was not modulated by emotional stimuli. This blunted response in SMD youth may contribute to their affective and behavioral dysregulation.
KW - Attention
KW - Children
KW - IAPS
KW - Mood dysregulation
KW - Pediatric bipolar disorder
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U2 - 10.1007/s10802-010-9395-0
DO - 10.1007/s10802-010-9395-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 20180010
AN - SCOPUS:77955897340
VL - 38
SP - 695
EP - 706
JO - Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
SN - 0091-0627
IS - 5
ER -