The evidence reviewed previously indicates that impulsivity can also be a severity marker for psychological disorders associated with, and comorbid for, alcohol use. Thus, there are associations between high-trait impulsivity and earlier onset of illness, more depressive episodes and increased suicidality in individuals with the diagnoses of bipolar disorder (Swann et al., 2009a). Impulsivity also goes along with the incidence of relapsing illness in substance users (Verdejo-Garcia et al., 2008), pathological gamblers (Blanco et al., 2009) and patients with bipolar disorder indicated, in the latter case, by findings that scores on the psychometric assessments (BIS-11) and impairments in laboratory measures of impulsivity are correlated with the frequency of illness (Swann et al., 2009a).
