The Role of Emotion Dysfunction in Bipolar Disorder (BD)

The Role of Emotion Dysfunction in Bipolar Disorder (BD)
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The Role of Emotion Dysfunction in Bipolar Disorder (BD)
Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe mental health illness characterized by extreme mood fluctuations and impairment of normal functioning. According to Painter et al. (2019), other key features of BD include impulsivity, elevated goal-directed behavior, and high energy. BD is also associated with high rates of divorce, homelessness, substance abuse, suicide, and anxiety. According to Johnson et al. (2016), even during remission, individuals with BD show greater activity in brain areas linked with the processing of emotions, like the amygdala. It is important to recognize that the emotional regulation process is integral in facilitating the daily functioning of individuals, and interference with the function can impact self-regulation ability. This paper investigates how emotional dysfunction is exhibited in individuals with bipolar disorder.
Emotional Reactivity
A key feature that characterizes BD patients is their reactions to environmental stimuli. In essence, emotional reactivity is a significant element that can categorize different mood episodes in BD. A study by Henry et al. (2012) sought to examine how euthymic bipolar patients were sensitive to daily life events using two scales: The Affect Intensity Measure (AIM) and the Affective Lability Scale (ALS). While AIM focuses on how intense the emotions of the patients are, ALS evaluates how patients perceive their ability to shift from their normal mood to states such as depression, elation, and anger (Henry et al., 2012). In essence, when patients display higher reactivity, their lability is also higher. The study's findings indicated that euthymic bipolar patients displayed higher lability and intensity of emotions compared to the control groups. In addition, when subjected to both pleasant and unpleasant emotional stimuli daily, BD patients were more reactive than the control groups. As such, given the higher reactivity to events in daily life among BD patients compared to controls, it is deducible that emotional dysfunction characterizes the experiences of BD patients to a great extent.
Facial Emotion Recognition
A key feature that may help understand the emotional dysfunction characteristic of BD patients is correctly recognizing the emotions on the faces of others. A study by Bozikas et al. (2006) investigated remitted BD patients to find out if their affect matching abilities were impaired. With 19 patients in the treatment group and 30 healthy people in the control group, the authors found that it was difficult for BD patients to match facial emotional expressions (Bozikas et al., 2006). Another study by Derntl et al. (2009) examined 62 BD patients to elucidate on emotion recognition. As per the findings of the study, patients with bipolar I disorder displayed reduced emotion recognition, but there was no significant difference between bipolar II disorder patients and the control groups (Derntl et al., 2009). As insinuated by the authors, the recurrent manic symptoms characteristic of bipolar I disorder impair the performance of patients in affective and cognitive tasks. In this sense, it is important to recognize the importance of recognizing emotions in facial expressions. As noted by Bozikas (2006), the correct recognition and appreciation of the facial expressions of others is integral for social functioning. Therefore, without the ability to recognize emotional expression in other people's faces, BD patients' ability to interact well with others and lead a normal life is limited to a great extent. In this case, the emotional dysfunction that characterizes BD patients could be partly influenced by their inability to recognize the emotions of others. In this case, understanding how emotional dysfunction plays out in BD patients is integral to finding solutions to help them lead better lives.
Emotional Regulation in BD Patients
Given the emotional dysfunction in BD patients, there are many strategies they employ to manage their states. De Prisco et al. (2022) pointed out that individuals with BD experience fluctuating emotional conditions and often show symptoms of minor or major affective episodes. In essence, the experiences encourage individuals with BD to undergo emotional regulation, which describes the ability of the person to monitor, modify, or evaluate their emotions, particularly when they are intense (De Prisco et al., 2022). In essence, emotional dysfunction in BD patients is characterized by the use of several coping strategies.
Maladaptive Strategies
As put forth by De Prisco et al. (2022), BD individuals tend to use maladaptive strategies in trying to regulate their emotions as opposed to adaptive strategies. Key maladaptive strategies used by BD patients include rumination, suppression, self-blame, catastrophizing, and suppression. Rumination is a key strategy employed by BD patients as they deal with emotional dysfunction. As noted by Ghaznavi and Deckersbach (2012), depressed BD patients engage in ruminative thinking. The authors note that since ruminative thinking is persistent and repetitive in nature, its presence in BD patients invalidates the belief that depression in BD is characterized by a slowdown in mental activity and scarcity of thought. In essence, BD patients are quite active mentally, particularly when in depressive states. These assertions are also supported by a review by Dodd et al. (2019), which point out that rumination showed positive relationships with depressive symptoms in BD patients. According to De Prisco et al. (2022), rumination can lead to a poorer course of the illness as it can affect sleep quality or lead to dysregulated behaviors. Furthermore, rumination can interfere with BD patients' problem-solving ability and concentration (De Prisco et al., 2022). In essence, rumination is a negative strategy that can lead to worsening of the condition.
Self-blame and catastrophizing are also employed by individuals with BD to cope with the condition. As indicated by Dodd et al. (2019), compared to controls, more people with BD endorsed catastrophizing and self-blame. Furthermor...