Clinicians need to make the differential diagnosis between unipolar depression and bipolar disorder to guide their treatment choices. Looking at the differences observed in the emotional schemas might help with this differentiation. This study is an exploratory investigation of schema theory's Leahy's emotional schemas among individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder and unipolar depression.

Three groups of subjects 56 unipolar depression in the remission period, 70 bipolar eutimic and 58 healthy controls were asked to fill out the Leahy Emotional Schema Scale (LESS). The clinicians diagnosed the participants according to the criteria of DSM-IV-TR with SCID-I, and rated the moods of the subjects with the Beck Depression Scale, and the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS). Statistical analyses were undertaken to identify the group differences on LESS.

The bipolar eutimic and unipolar depression patients’ scores on the LESS dimensions were significantly different from the healthy participants in the areas of control, consensus, acceptance of feelings, dissimilarity and simplistic view of emotions.

These results suggest that the metacognitive model of unipolar depression might be extrapolated for patients with bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder may be associated with a general activation of the emotional schemas.

The author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.