Procedures
Potential participants completed an initial phone
interview to establish that they were fluent English
speakers, were between the ages of 18 and 65, and
met preliminary screening criteria for Bipolar I
Disorder (bipolar group) or for no past or current
mood disorder (control group). Potentially eligible
persons were invited to participate in a more extensive
in-person diagnostic interview. Participants in
the bipolar group completed the impulsivity battery
only when they were not in episode. If participants
with bipolar disorder reported elevated
scores on depression or mania symptom interviews
[7 or higher on both the Modified Hamilton Rating
Scale for Depression (MHRSD) and the Bech Rafaelsen
Mania Scale (BRMS)], they were scheduled
for monthly telephone interviews to track symptom
remission. Because residual symptoms in bipolar
disorder are normative (41), participants who
continued to report mildly elevated subsyndromal
symptoms after several follow-up interviews were
asked to complete the impulsivity measures once
their symptoms had stabilized to a level they considered
to be their typical baseline state. These data
were collected as part of a larger study that
included other measures not described here. Previous
reports have focused on ambitious goal setting
(42) and quality of life (6), but no previous reports
overlap with the analyses examined here.