Cognitive styles and life events interact to predict bipolar and unipolar symptomatology

This study examined the interaction of cognitive style (as assessed self-re port and information-processing battery) and stressful life events in predi cting the clinician-rated depressive and manic symptomatology of participan ts with Research Diagnostic Criteria lifetime diagnoses of bipolar disorder (n = 49), unipolar depression (n = 97), or no lifetime diagnosis (n = 23). Bipolar and unipolar participants' attributional styles, dysfunctional att itudes, and negative self-referent information processing as assessed at Ti me 1 interacted significantly with the number of negative life events that occurred between Times 1 and 2 to predict increases in depressive symptoms from Time 1 to Time 2. Within the bipolar group, participants' Time 1 attri butional styles and dysfunctional attitudes interacted significantly, and t heir self-referent information processings interacted marginally, with inte rvening life events to predict increases in manic symptoms from Time 1 to T ime 2. These findings provide support for the applicability of cognitive vu lnerability-stress theories of depression to bipolar spectrum disorders.