Conclusions
In sum, the results of our study suggest that euthymic BD patients
present selective gaze processing impairment, limited to the sensitivity
to intention and emotion: compared to healthy controls, BD patients were
impaired at judging mental state from images of the eyes, but showed
normal susceptibility to direction of gaze as an attentional cue. It is
important to note that in the present study euthymic BD poor performance
on the reading the mind task could not be attributed to demographic
factors such as gender, age, or education, as BD and control groups were
matched on these variables. The impairment in judging mental state from
images of the eyes could account at least partially for the higher
levels of interpersonal problems generally observed in euthymic BD
patients. Therefore, these individuals might clearly benefit from an
appropriate early application of interventions aimed to avoid or limit
the incidence of these deficits. In fact, these social dysfunctions in
stabilized bipolar patients may hinder a full functional recovery, but
since now have proved unresponsive to common psychotropic medications.