Linguistic styles and referential activity of unipolar and bipolar mood disorder

Several studies explored if Bipolar Mood Disorder (BMD) and Unipolar Mood Disorder (UMD) are characterized by the same or different neuropsychological and affective processes. Some neurological studies found different cerebral areas are activated in BMD and UMD; however self-report questionnaires generally are not able to differentiate the two types of mood disorders (ManHan, De Berardis, Fornaro, KuKima, 2019). Also some studies on linguistic style of patients with mood disorders reported some interesting results: patients with mood disorders are found to significantly use the first-person pronoun (Bucci and Freedman, 1981) and words referring to negative affects (Himmelstein, Barb, Finlayson, & Young, 2018). The aim of the study is analyzing different features of linguistic style in UMD, BMD and non-clinical participants. We hypothesize, in the frame of Multiple Code Theory, the Referential Process (RP) and emotional regulation in UMD and BMD are different, showing various types of words in narratives of Relationship Anecdotes. According to DSM-5 criteria 20 Italian patients were selected (10 with BMD, 10 with UMD) compared with 10 Italian non-clinical participants. A psychologist administered to participants the Relationship Anecdotes Paradigm (RAP) interview and the Profile of Mood States (POMS). The interviews were transcribed and analyzed through the linguistic measures of referential process (Maskit, 2011). The ANOVA analysis shows the POMS scores did not discriminate BMD from UMD, but only clinical from non-clinical groups while linguistic analysis revealed specific pattern styles of words for each group: in BDM speech presented a significantly higher use of (a) words referring to body and sensations (F=12.220; p>.01) and a more Referential Activity Intensity Index (MHIW) (F=4.073; p>.05). The results indicate that emotional dysregulation as detected by linguistic measures of referential process, catching different patter style for BDM and UMD.