Psychiatr. Pol. 2014; 48(3): 489–502 PL ISSN 0033-2674 www.psychiatriapolska.pl Profle of moral reasoning in persons with bipolar affective disorder Roksana E p a 1 , Natalia Czyżowska 1 , Dominika D u d e k 1 , Marcin Siwek 1 , Józef Krzysztof Gierowski 2 1 Institute of Affective Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, UJ CM Head: prof. dr hab. D. Dudek 2 Department of Psychiatry, UJ CM Head: prof. dr hab. J.K. Gierowski Summary Aim: The subject of the research presented in this paper was to analyze the relationships between bipolar disorder (BD) and the profle of moral reasoning according to the concept of James Rest. Material and methods: 86 persons took part in the research, including 43 bipolar patients and 43 healthy individuals. To measure the severity of depression and mania symptoms the following scales were used: Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D), Montgom- ery- Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and Young Rating Scale for Mania (YMRS). Profle of moral reasoning was defned on the basis of the results obtained in the Defning Issue Test (DIT) by James Rest. Results: Statistical analysis showed that there is a relationship between bipolar disorder (and its phases) and the profle of moral reasoning: bipolar patients signifcantly less often than healthy individuals chose answers indicating the postconventional thinking (p=0,000) – and more often – answers indicating stage 3 and those belonging to the anti-institutional thinking index (p=0,000). There was also a relationship shown between the development of moral reasoning and the phase of bipolar disorder: patients in mania less often than per- sons in euthymia chose answers indicating the fnal stage of moral thinking (p=0,050). There were no signifcant differences between the results of patients with a depressive episode and the results of patients in mania and between the results of patients with a depressive episode and the results of patients in euthymia. Conclusions: The results suggest that the psychological state of the individual may have an impact on the process of moral reasoning – bipolar disorder may to some extent infu- ence the way of thinking about moral dilemmas. The collected data also seem to emphasize the specifcity of the manic phase which is especially worth exploration when conducting further studies. Key words: morality, development of moral reasoning, bipolar affective disorder