ArticleJournal of affective disorders2014
Mental imagery in bipolar affective disorder versus unipolar depression: investigating cognitions at times of 'positive' mood.
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- Visual Imagery and Spectrum Symptoms of Depression and Hypomania Differentially Modulate Brain Responses during Emotional Face Anticipation and Encoding.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Reward magnitude-specific delay discounting differentiates mania versus depression risk.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- 'Flashforward' mental imagery in adolescents: exploring developmental differences and associations with mental health.Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy · 2024Article
- The IBER study: a feasibility randomised controlled trial of imagery based emotion regulation for the treatment of anxiety in bipolar disorder.International journal of bipolar disorders · 2023Article
- The Suicidal Intrusions Attributes Scale (SINAS): a new tool measuring suicidal intrusions.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Aphantasia and psychological disorder: Current connections, defining the imagery deficit and future directions.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Cue-Reactive Imagery Mediates the Relationships of Reward Responsiveness with Both Cue-Reactive Urge to Gamble and Positive Affect in Poker-Machine Gamblers.Journal of gambling studies · 2020Article
- Mental images, entrapment and affect in young adults meeting criteria of nonsuicidal self-injury disorder (NSSID) - a daily diary study.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2020Article
- Remediating reduced memory specificity in bipolar disorder: A case study using a Computerized Memory Specificity Training.Brain and behavior · 2019Article
- Emotional Mental Imagery Abnormalities in Monozygotic Twins With, at High-Risk of, and Without Affective Disorders: Present in Affected Twins in Remission but Absent in High-Risk Twins.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Article
- Neural response during emotion regulation in monozygotic twins at high familial risk of affective disorders.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2019Article
- An investigation of mental imagery in bipolar disorder: Exploring "the mind's eye".Bipolar disorders · 2016Article
- Evidence-based guidelines for treating bipolar disorder: Revised third edition recommendations from the British Association for Psychopharmacology.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2016Article
- Bipolar risk and mental imagery susceptibility in a representative sample of Chinese adults residing in the community.The International journal of social psychiatry · 2016Article
- Self-images in the present and future: Role of affect and the bipolar phenotype.Journal of affective disorders · 2015Article
- Hypomanic Experience in Young Adults Confers Vulnerability to Intrusive Imagery After Experimental Trauma: Relevance for Bipolar Disorder.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2014Article
- Positive involuntary autobiographical memories: you first have to live them.Consciousness and cognition · 2013Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCompared to unipolar depression (UD), depressed mood in bipolar disorder (BD) has been associated with amplified negative mental imagery of the future ('flashforwards'). However, imagery characteristics during positive mood remain poorly explored. We hypothesise first, that unlike UD patients, the most significant positive images of BD patients will be 'flashforwards' (rather than past memories). Second, that BD patients will experience more frequent (and more 'powerful') positive imagery as compared to verbal thoughts and third, that behavioural activation scores will be predicted by imagery variables in the BD group.
methodsBD (n=26) and UD (n=26) patients completed clinical and trait imagery measures followed by an Imagery Interview and a measure of behavioural activation.
resultsCompared to UD, BD patients reported more 'flashforwards' compared to past memories and rated their 'flashforwards' as more vivid, exciting and pleasurable. Only the BD group found positive imagery more 'powerful', (preoccupying, 'real' and compelling) as compared to verbal thoughts. Imagery-associated pleasure predicted levels of drive and reward responsiveness in the BD group. LIMITATIONS: A limitation in the study was the retrospective design. Moreover pathological and non-pathological periods of "positive" mood were not distinguished in the BD sample.
conclusionsThis study reveals BD patients experience positive 'flashforward' imagery in positive mood, with more intense qualities than UD patients. This could contribute to the amplification of emotional states and goal directed behaviour leading into mania, and differentiate BD from UD.
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