Manic patients exhibit more utilitarian moral judgments in comparison with euthymic bipolar and healthy persons

Both emotional and cognitive processes are involved in moral judgments. Ventromedial prefrontal lesions are related to impaired prosocial emotions and emotional dysregulation, and patients with these lesions exhibit increased utilitarian judgments of emotionally salient personal moral dilemmas. Bipolar patients experiencing manic episode also have impaired emotional regulation and behavioral control. We investigated the characteristics of moral judgment in manic and euthymic patients with bipolar disorder using the 50 hypothetical moral dilemma task (17 non-moral, 20 personal, and 13 impersonal).

Source: Comprehensive Psychiatry - December 29, 2014 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Sung Hwa Kim, Tae Young Kim, Vin Ryu, Ra Yeon Ha, Su Jin Lee, Kyooseob Ha, Hyun-Sang Cho Source Type: research