Samame´C, Martino DJ, Strejilevich SA. Social cognition in euthymic bipolar disorder: systematic review and meta-analytic approach.Objective: Deficits in social cognition have been reported in euthymic subjects with bipolar disorder (BD). However, some studies have failed to find differences favoring controls. As most investigations have been conducted with small samples, they have not had sufficient power to detect statistically significant differences. Furthermore, studies communicating positive results have scarcely attempted to estimate effect sizes for patient-control differences. The aim of this study was to summarize the findings of reports on social cognition in patients with euthymic BD and to combine their data to identify possible deficits and quantify their magnitude. Method: Systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Results: Impairments of moderate magnitude (0.5 < d < 0.8) were noted across mentalizing skills, whereas small but significant effect sizes (d < 0.5) were observed for facial emotion recognition. No patient-control differences were found for decision-making. Conclusion: Meta-analytic findings provide evidence for emotion processing and theory of mind deficits in remitted bipolar patients. However, it is not yet clear whether these areas of impairment are related to neurocognitive dysfunctions or to medication effects. The results are discussed with regard to targets for future neuropsychological research on BDs. Summations• Deficits in theory of mind and emotion processing occur in patients with euthymic BD, whereas decision-making appears to be preserved.• Moderate effect sizes were noted for mentalizing skills, while differences of small magnitude were found for the recognition of facial affect expressions. Considerations• These meta-analytic findings should be interpreted cautiously on account of the modest number of studies included, the heterogeneity observed for effect size distributions, and the paucity of wellestablished instruments for the assessment of social-cognitive domains.• Only a small number of studies reported data on potential moderators of cognitive impairment in euthymic patients, such as medication status and residual symptoms.

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