Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis for a IRBLleida researcher and psychiatrist at the University Hospital of Santa Maria in the National Congress of Psychiatry

Lleida, November 15th, 2016 Irene Forcada, psychiatrist at the University Hospital of Santa Maria and researcher at the Research Group for Biological Basis of Mental Disorders of the Institute of Biomedical Research Foundation Dr. Lleida Pifarré (IRBLleida), received the Prize XXII of the Spanish Society of Biological Psychiatry for the Best Doctoral Thesis in the academic year 2014-2015. The award took place on October 29th during the closing ceremony of the XIX National Congress of Psychiatry, held in Palma de Mallorca. The results of the thesis, entitled "Reserve cognitive neuropsychology and neuroestructurals factors involved in the functionality of bipolar disorder," confirm the influence of brain and cognitive reserve in cognitive and functional prognosis of patients with bipolar disorder. Meant by "cognitive reserve" the ability of the adult brain to better tolerate the effects of a particular disease in order to minimize the symptoms. This thesis shows how, even in the case of bipolar disorder, the "cognitive reserve" acts as a protective factor with respect to the expression of the disease.