(PS3-C54) Prosocial Behaviors Across Mood Disorder Profiles

Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe psychiatric disorder and has been linked to serious deficits in psychosocial functioning. Studies indicate similar difficulties in psychosocial functioning in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). Interestingly, there is evidence that people with BD and MDD may display increased positive social behaviors. Yet at the same time, another line of work has found no associations between mood disorders and increased prosocial behavior.

Aims: We examined two non-mutually exclusive perspectives regarding associations between different domains of prosocial behavior and mood disorder diagnosis and severity. The first “increased prosociality” perspective suggests that mood disordered populations (i.e., the BD and MDD groups) will demonstrate increased prosocial behaviors across our five prosocial variables compared to a non-psychiatric control group. The second “diminished prosociality” perspective suggests that there will be decreased prosociality between our mood disordered populations (i.e., the BD and MDD groups) groups compared to a non-psychiatric control group.

Methods: Participants were recruited in three groups: individuals with bipolar I disorder, currently inter-episode (BD; N=19), major depressive disorder, currently inter-episode (MDD; N=28), and non-psychiatric control participants (CTL; N=29) between the ages of 18-55 years old. We investigated the relationship between our mood groups and prosocial behavior using 5 previously validated measures: E-Card Task, Public Goods Game, Dictator Game, Global Preference Survey (with 4 subscales assessing negative reciprocity, positive reciprocity, altruism, and trust), and Daily Helping Behaviors. We also measured current clinical symptom severity and demographics.

Results: Analyses are underway (preregistration URL: https://osf.io/q9z3x) yet preliminary results indicate that there are no group differences in prosocial behavior between BD, MDD, and non-psychiatric control individuals across any prosocial measures, even when controlling for current symptoms.

Discussion: These preliminary results indicate that there may not be differences in prosocial behavior between mood disordered and non-psychiatric populations, suggesting preservation of prosociality among individuals with a history of mood difficulties. The present study adds valuable contribution to the literature and is among the first to investigate distinct domains of prosocial behavior in bipolar and related mood disorders.