Do people who have bipolar disorder have a harder time with accurate memory? Are they more likely to confuse their memories with fantasy or daydreaming as though it actually occurred?
Everyone does some version of what is called “confabulation,” and to varying degrees. Confabulation is a term referring to the phenomenon of misremembering, or creating a context for memory that fills in data—often skewed and erroneous data, into a memory.
Memories are not videotaped information stored in our brains — they are active, sculpted, and nourished bits of data, accompanied by emotions and sensations. We first encode, then store in long term, then retrieve memories. We forget more than we remember, and in order to make sense of past experiences, we unwittingly may create a series of events that did not occur. False memories are an example of this in the extreme.
Research suggests that people with bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression) may have some effect on verbal recall (remembering what was said and what words were used) and in general learning. In a study examining word recall, those with bipolar disorder performed less well than those without, but their other cognitive faculties remained intact. This suggests that a mild disruption in verbal recall occurs, but that other aspects of functioning were normal. The memory that is “encoded” may be erroneous. Interestingly, the emotional swings associated with bipolar disorder did not hinder the encoding aspect of memory. Those with bipolar disorder seemed to “recall” words that were not presented to memory, suggesting that a small amount of confabulation might be happening.
Medication and their effects need to be ruled out since a side-effect of some medication on some people could be difficulty in concentrating.
Does this have any noticeable impact in daily living? We still cannot say, as much more research is required to understand the brain areas of recall with those causing bipolar disorders. The thing to remember: We all confabulate to some degree — so let’s be flexible about what we’re so sure happened — or didn’t!
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 8 Sep 2008
