ArticleBipolar disorders2016
An investigation of mental imagery in bipolar disorder: Exploring "the mind's eye".
Article in Bipolar disorders, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mental Imagery of the Self in Body Dysmorphic Disorder: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review.Clinical psychology & psychotherapyPooled it
- Positive moods are all alike? Differential affect amplification effects of 'elated' versus 'calm' mental imagery in young adults reporting hypomanic-like experiences.Translational psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Imagery-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques for Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Psychosis Spectrum Disorders: Four Experimental Case Series.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2025Article
- Exploring the Working Mechanisms between Anxiety, Mental Imagery, and Auditory Verbal Hallucinations: A Longitudinal Study.Schizophrenia bulletin open · 2025Article
- 'Flashforward' mental imagery in adolescents: exploring developmental differences and associations with mental health.Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy · 2024Article
- Specificity of Episodic Future Thinking in Adolescents: Comparing Childhood Maltreatment, Autism Spectrum, and Typical Development.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 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
- Editorial: Returning to Mechanisms in Psychological Therapies: Understand the Engine Before Steaming in.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- Looking on the bright side and seeing it vividly: interpretation bias and involuntary mental imagery are related to risk for bipolar disorder.Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy · 2020Article
- The IBER study: study protocol for a feasibility randomised controlled trial of Imagery Based Emotion Regulation for the treatment of anxiety in bipolar disorder.Pilot and feasibility 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
- Intrusive memories and voluntary memory of a trauma film: Differential effects of a cognitive interference task after encoding.Journal of experimental psychology. General · 2019Article
- Social Anxiety and Mental Imagery Processes.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2019Article
- Spontaneous future cognition: the past, present and future of an emerging topic.Psychological research · 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
- Imagery-Focused Cognitive Therapy (ImCT) for Mood Instability and Anxiety in a Small Sample of Patients with Bipolar Disorder: a Pilot Clinical Audit.Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy · 2018Article
- Intrusive Memories of Trauma in the Laboratory: Methodological Developments and Future Directions.Current behavioral neuroscience reports · 2018Review
- Treatment of Intrusive Suicidal Imagery Using Eye Movements.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2017Article
- An investigation of mental imagery in bipolar disorder: Exploring "the mind's eye".Bipolar disorders · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesMental imagery abnormalities occur across psychopathologies and are hypothesized to drive emotional difficulties in bipolar disorder (BD). A comprehensive assessment of mental imagery in BD is lacking. We aimed to test whether (i) mental imagery abnormalities (abnormalities in cognitive stages and subjective domains) occur in BD relative to non-clinical controls; and (ii) to determine the specificity of any abnormalities in BD relative to depression and anxiety disorders.
methodsParticipants included 54 subjects in the BD group (depressed/euthymic; n=27 in each subgroup), subjects with unipolar depression (n=26), subjects with anxiety disorders (n=25), and non-clinical controls (n=27) matched for age, gender, ethnicity, education, and premorbid IQ. Experimental tasks assessed cognitive (non-emotional) measures of mental imagery (cognitive stages). Questionnaires, experimental tasks, and a phenomenological interview assessed subjective domains including spontaneous imagery use, interpretation bias, and emotional mental imagery.
results(i) Compared to non-clinical controls, the BD combined group reported a greater impact of intrusive prospective imagery in daily life, more vivid and "real" negative images (prospective imagery task), and higher self-involvement (picture-word task). The BD combined group showed no clear abnormalities in cognitive stages of mental imagery. (ii) When depressed individuals with BD were compared to the depressed or anxious clinical control groups, no significant differences remained-across all groups, imagery differences were associated with affective lability and anxiety.
conclusionsCompared to non-clinical controls, BD is characterized by abnormalities in aspects of emotional mental imagery within the context of otherwise normal cognitive aspects. When matched for depression and anxiety, these abnormalities are not specific to BD-rather, imagery may reflect a transdiagnostic marker of emotional psychopathology.
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