More than words? Hypomanic personality traits, visual imagery and verbal thought in young adults

The use of visual mental imagery has been proposed to be a risk factor for the development of bipolar disorder, due to its potential to amplify affective states. This study examined the relation between visual imagery (both trait usage and intrusive experiences of such imagery), intrusive verbal thought, and hypomania, as assessed by self-report questionnaires, in a sample of young adults (N = 219). Regression analyses found (after controlling for anxiety, depression, and positive and negative affect) that levels of intrusive visual imagery predicted levels of hypomania, but that neither trait use of visual imagery nor intrusive verbal thought did. These results were consistent with the proposal that being a ‘visualiser’, as opposed to a ‘verbaliser’, is a risk factor for bipolar disorder, with the caveat that it is specifically intrusive experiences of imagery, rather than the tendency to utilize imagery per se, that acts as a risk factor.

► Specific types of conscious mentation may be risk factors for psychopathology.
► We examine the role of visual imagery and verbal thought in hypomania.
► Intrusive visual imagery (but not trait use) predicted levels of hypomania.
► Levels of verbal thought did not predict levels of hypomania.
► Intrusive visual imagery may be a risk factor for bipolar disorder.