Visual memory dysfunction as a neurocognitive endophenotype in bipolar disorder patients and their unaffected relatives. Evidence from a 5-year follow-up Valencia study

•Patients with bipolar disorder and their unaffected relatives performed significantly worse than healthy controls on the Rey–Osterrieth complex figure test.•Bipolar disorder patients and their unaffected relatives showed stable deficits in visual memory over 5-year.•Unaffected relatives showed an intermediate profile between patients and healthy controls in visual memory.•Impaired visual memory could be considered a potential neurocognitive endophenotype of bipolar disorder. Scarce research has focused on Visual Memory (VM) deficits as a possible neurocognitive endophenotype of bipolar disorder (BD). The main aim of this longitudinal, family study with healthy controls was to explore whether VM dysfunction represents a neurocognitive endophenotype of BD. Assessment of VM by Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCF) was carried out on a sample of 317 subjects, including 140 patients with BD, 60 unaffected first-degree relatives (BD-Rel), and 117 genetically-unrelated healthy controls (HC), on three occasions over a 5-year period (T1, T2, and T3). BD-Rel group scores were analyzed only at T1 and T2. Performance of BD patients was significantly worse than the HC group (p