Persons suffering from bipolar affective disorder have a wide range of cognitive deficits, but there have been limited understanding of prospective memory performance. Time-based prospective memory is remembering to perform an action at a specific time, whereas event-based prospective memory is remembering to perform an action when an external cue appears.

Assess the time-based and event-based prospective memory performance in Chinese persons diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder.

Identify factors associated with prospective memory performance.

A sample of 40 persons diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder were recruited from a psychiatric outpatient clinic. All participants completed the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test, Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test, Test of Nonverbal Intelligence - Third Edition, the Young Mania Rating Scale and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression.

The mean total score of the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test of persons diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder was 24.4±7.0. Time-based prospective memory performance was worse than event-based PM task. The Cambridge Prospective Memory Test total score was associated with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression score and Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test score. The performance of time-based prospective memory tasks was associated with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression score, and the performance of event-based prospective memory tasks was associated with the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test total score.

Persons diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder are found to have worse time-based than event-based prospective memory performance. The importance for everyday functioning and independent living needs to be explored in future studies.