Several neurocognitive deficits present in the euthymic state of bipolar disorder suggest that some of them could be seen as vulnerability trait markers of the illness. Psychoeducation proved as effective therapeutic approach which decreases the risk of relapse and prolongs remission. In our study we aimed to examine the psychoeducational effects on cognitive functioning in the sample of euthymic bipolar outpatients.

A neuropsychological tests battery for assessing selective attention (Emotional and Colour-Word Stroop), cognitive control (Emotional Go/NoGo task) and social cognition (Face recognition task and Recognition of emotional expression task) was administered to 29 bipolar euthymic outpatients before and after attendance at six weeks psychoeducation program. The same procedure was applied on 10 bipolar euthymic outpatients without participating in psychoeducation.

Despite statistically insignificant differences between groups in cognitive performance, some considerable within group differences in domains of selective attention and cognitive control of emotional stimuli emerged. In the Emotional Stroop there was faster processing speed of emotional stimuli after psychoeducation compared to baseline in the intervention group which was not found in the control group. Similarly, coping with emotional stimuli in different emotional contexts markedly improved in the intervention group compared to the control group. Changes in social cognition, in particular better recognition of negative affect were found in the bipolar group with psychoeducation but not in the control group.

Though preliminary, our results support psychoeducation as clinically feasible way of cognitive rehabilitation in terms of improved cognitive control of emotional stimuli in bipolar patients.