Psychopathological and Cognitive Mechanisms of Racing and Crowded Thoughts in Mood Disorders

Racing thoughts relate to subjective acceleration of thinking which has been essentially associated with manic episodes in bipolar disorder. Qualitatively, the phenomenology of racing thoughts in major depression seems to differ from rumination and pure manic racing thoughts: thoughts of all kinds accumulate in the patient's head. Recent qualitative evidence is consistent with the existence of these two kinds of "thought overactivity" related to mood disorders. In order to evaluate this and better understand the psychopathological and cognitive mechanisms that underlie thought overactivity in mood disorders, we have created a 34-item self-questionnaire - the Racing and Crowded Thoughts Questionnaire (RCTQ) and a number of neuropsychological tasks (time perception, cognitive flexibility). Also, given the relationship between mood disorders and creativity, it is likely that thought overactivity is related to increased creativity. We aim at evaluating this relationship through the French version of the Cognitive Processes Associated with Creativity scale (CPAC).