Forty subjects with bipolar disorder who are not receiving a mood-stabilizing medication for
the treatment of their illness will participate in this study. The study aims to evaluate how
decision-making is affected by treatment for bipolar disorder. Prior to beginning treatment,
patients will complete questionnaires and a one-hour computer-administered assessment of
decision-making. Differences between pre-post decision-making outcomes will be evaluated to
examine whether the neuroeconomic concepts of risk aversion, loss aversion, risk tolerance
and delay discounting are affected by treatment.
The overall goal of this study will be to identify whether decision-making in people with
bipolar disorder is affected by treatment. Specifically the investigators will compare
decision-making characteristics among bipolar patients prior to treatment with how these
decision-making characteristics change over the course of 6 weeks of standard medication
therapy for bipolar disorder. A total of 6 decision-making tasks and one control task will be
administered via computer to eligible subjects. The investigators will evaluate
decision-making under varying conditions of reward, risk, and uncertainty and over time. The
investigators hypothesize that decision-making will improve across these assessments after 6
weeks of treatment.