RESUMEN
The purpose of the study is to explore the peculiarities of cognitive functioning in the depressive phase of BAS, taking into account the gender factor. The results of the study are based on data from a clinical and psychological examination of 27 men and 39 women with bipolar disorder (BAD) and undergoing treatment at the Yushchenko Vinnytsia Regional Psychoneurological Hospital from 2016 to 2020 in connection with the current episode of mild or moderate depression (ICD-10 code F31.3). The study revealed significant deteriorations of cognitive processes, including disorders of attention, memory, cognitive and executive functions. In the structure of cognitive clinical symptoms the signs of slow thinking (in 100% of patients), impaired concentration (88.9% of men and 82.1% of women, p>0.05), difficulties in planning and decision-making (85.2% and 79.5%, p>0.05), less rigid thinking (81.5% and 59.0%, p<0.05) dominated. Patients with BAR performed significantly slower tests TMT-A (101.0±13.6 sec. and 98.9±8.9 sec., P>0.05) and TMT-B (333.5±17.9 sec. and 331.3±12.9 sec., p>0.05), which indicates a reduced ability to visual and motor processing of information, deterioration of mechanical memory, impaired performance, working memory and inhibition control. The verbal fluency test was performed worse: the subtest «Number of words on the letter «K¼ (12.1±2.3 words and 12.9±1.6, p>0.05), the subtest «Number of words on the letter «P¼ (10.5±2.4 words and 10.8±1.8 words, p>0.05), the subtest «Male names¼ (11.2±2.1 words and 11.9±1.5 words), p>0.05), the subtest «Fruit and furniture¼ (10.4±2.3 words and 10.7±1.6 words, p>0.05), which is considered to be a consequence of bradypsychism, motor retardation, attention and memory deficit disorder. Also, the increase of time for Stroop test performance: reading names of colors where color of a font differs from a word meaning (166,1±12,7 sec. and 164,4±8,8 sec., p>0,05), naming colors, where the font color differs from the meaning of the word (68.2±8.7 sec. and 66.7±5.6 sec., p>0.05), reading the names of colors printed in black (69.4±9, 1 sec and 67.8±5.8 sec, p>0.05), color naming (100.8±6.2 sec and 101.6±5.2 sec, p>0.05) , control rigidity/flexibility index (97.9±4.5 sec. and 97.7±3.6 sec., p>0.05), verbality index (1.5±0.1 sec., p>0,05), which testifies to a distinct effect of interference and significant rigidity of cognitive control processes in combination with a violation of the cognitive functions automatization and a decrease in the degree of their independent functioning.