Associations between cognitive impairment and illness awareness in fully remitted bipolar outpatients

•Fully remitted bipolar outpatients in Japan were investigated in this study.•Relationship between cognitive impairment and current illness awareness was studied.•Subjective cognitive function correlated with current medication effect awareness.•Objective cognitive function correlated with current mental illness awareness.•Subjective and objective cognitive functions differed in the related subscales. The euthymic state of bipolar disorder is often characterized by impaired cognitive function. In this investigation, we hypothesized that subjective cognitive function is impaired and illness awareness is inadequate and we further explored the associations among cognitive complaints, objective cognitive functions, and current illness awareness in Japanese patients. Twenty-seven patients in remission and 27 healthy subjects were recruited in this study. The Japanese version of the Cognitive Complaints in Bipolar Disorder Rating Assessment (COBRA) and Scale to Assess Unawareness in Mental Disorders (Japanese, SUMD-J) were used to assess each patient. All patients underwent neuropsychological tests for the assessment of objective cognitive functions. Only SUMD2.C (current awareness of the effects of medication) was significantly correlated with COBRA, and the objective cognitive assessments, Word Fluency Test and Stroop Test Reaction Time, represented significant correlations with SUMD1.C (current awareness of mental illness). In remitted bipolar outpatients, both the objective and subjective cognitive functions were found to be associated with illness awareness. However, subjective and objective cognitive functions differed in the related illness awareness subscales in fully remitted bipolar outpatients.