Science News about Bipolar Disorder

Studies Refine Understanding of Treatments for Bipolar Disorder

Science Update • September 01, 2007

Two new studies provide additional details on best practices for treating people with bipolar disorder, a sometimes debilitating illness marked by severe mood swings between depression and mania.

Bipolar Youth Show Distinct Pattern of Brain Development

Science Update • August 28, 2007

The first picturess of the brain changing before-and-after the onset of pediatric bipolar disorder reveal a distinct pattern of development, when compared to that seen in healthy youth or in childhood onset schizophrenia.

Parents' Diagnoses Help to Distinguish Childhood Bipolar Disorder from Severe Mood Dysregulation

Science Update • August 06, 2007

The parents of children who have bipolar disorder are more likely to have bipolar disorder themselves than the parents of children who have severe mood dysregulation (SMD).

NIMH Funds Research for Early Intervention in Childhood Bipolar Disorder

Science Update • June 04, 2007

NIMH recently approved funding to test the effectiveness of an early intervention in children at high risk for developing bipolar disorder.

Genetic Roots of Bipolar Disorder Revealed by First Genome-Wide Study of Illness

Press Release • May 08, 2007

The likelihood of developing bipolar disorder depends in part on the combined, small effects of variations in many different genes in the brain, none of which is powerful enough to cause the disease by itself, a new study shows.

Bipolar Spectrum Disorder May Be Underrecognized and Improperly Treated

Press Release • May 07, 2007

A new study supports earlier estimates of the prevalence of bipolar disorder in the U.S. population, and suggests the illness may be more accurately characterized as a spectrum disorder.

Gene Knockout Unleashes Manic Mouse

Science Update • April 05, 2007

Mice engineered to lack a specific gene showed behaviors similar to human mania in a study funded in part by NIMH; they were hyperactive, slept less, appeared less depressed and anxious, and craved sugar, cocaine and pleasure stimulation.

Intensive Psychotherapy More Effective Than Brief Therapy for Treating Bipolar Depression

Press Release • April 02, 2007

Patients taking medications to treat bipolar disorder are more likely to get well faster and stay well if they receive intensive psychotherapy, according to results from the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD), funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Study Sheds Light on Medication Treatment Options for Bipolar Disorder

Press Release • March 28, 2007

For depressed people with bipolar disorder who are taking a mood stabilizer, adding an antidepressant medication is no more effective than a placebo (sugar pill), according to results published online on March 28, 2007 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Extreme Irritability: Is It Childhood Bipolar Disorder?

Press Release • February 01, 2007

Results of a new study may help improve the diagnosis and treatment of two debilitating childhood mental disorders — pediatric bipolar disorder (BD) and a syndrome called severe mood dysregulation (SMD).

Different Families, Different Characteristics — Different Kinds of Bipolar Disorder?

Science Update • January 03, 2007

People with bipolar disorder (BPD) tend to share similarities in certain characteristics with other members of their families, NIMH-funded researchers have shown.

Landmark Council Session Spotlights “Real World” Trials

Science Update • December 21, 2006

Principal investigators of NIMH's four large-scale clinical trials presented study results and their implications at the National Advisory Mental Health Council meeting on September 15, 2006.

New Research Helps to Improve Understanding of Bipolar Disorder in Youth

Science Update • October 24, 2006

Bipolar disorder may be hard to identify in children and adolescents for several reasons, including a lack of age-appropriate diagnostic guidelines and symptoms different than those commonly seen in adults with the disorder.

NIMH Researchers Discover Medication’s Antidepressant Potential

Science Update • October 02, 2006

A commonly used sedative and motion-sickness treatment shows promise as a fast-acting antidepressant, according to a study conducted by researchers at NIMH.

Bipolar Disorder Exacts Twice Depression’s Toll in Workplace, Productivity Lags Even After Mood Lifts

Press Release • September 01, 2006

Bipolar disorder costs twice as much in lost productivity as major depressive disorder, an NIMH funded study has found.

Obesity Linked with Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Science Update • July 03, 2006

Results of an NIMH-funded study show that nearly one out of four cases of obesity is associated with a mood or anxiety disorder, but the causal relationship and complex interplay between the two is still unclear.

Intermittent Explosive Disorder Affects up to 16 Million Americans

Press Release • June 05, 2006

A little-known mental disorder marked by episodes of unwarranted anger is more common than previously thought, a study funded by NIMH has found.

Fear Circuit Flares as Bipolar Youth Misread Faces

Press Release • May 29, 2006

Youth with bipolar disorder misread facial expressions as hostile and show heightened neural reactions when they focus on emotional aspects of neutral faces, NIMH researchers have discovered.

Lithium Blocks Enzyme To Help Cells’ Clocks Keep On Tickin’

Science Update • February 17, 2006

NIMH-funded researchers have discovered how lithium likely fixes body clocks gone awry, stabilizing sleep-wake cycles and other daily rhythms disturbed along with mood in bipolar disorder.

Largest Study to Date on Pediatric Bipolar Disorder Describes Disease Characteristics And Short-Term Outcomes

Science Update • February 08, 2006

Recent findings from the multi-site, NIMH-funded Course and Outcome of Bipolar Illness in Youth (COBY) study are helping to shape the understanding of three major subtypes of bipolar disorder that affect children and adolescents and how this diagnosis may affect them as adults.

Early Findings from Largest NIMH-Funded Research Program on Bipolar Disorder Begin to Build Evidence-Base on Best Treatment Options

Science Update • February 01, 2006

Findings from an NIMH research program on bipolar disorder provide much needed long-term data on the chronic, recurrent course of the disorder, and begin the work of building an evidence-base on the best treatments for those with the disorder.

Mutant Gene Linked to Treatment-Resistant Depression

Science Update • December 13, 2004

A mutant gene that starves the brain of serotonin, a mood-regulating chemical messenger, has been discovered and found to be 10 times more prevalent in depressed patients than in control subjects, report researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

Stress Impairs Thinking Via Mania-Linked Enzyme

Press Release • October 29, 2004

An errant enzyme linked to bipolar disorder, in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, impairs cognition under stress, an animal study shows.

Mental Illness Genetics Among Science’s Top “Breakthroughs“ for 2003

Press Release • December 22, 2003

Research on the genetics of mental illness, most of it NIMH-funded and much of it in the Institute’s own laboratories, was named the #2 scientific "breakthrough of the year" by Science magazine in its December l9, 2003, issue.

NIMH Awards $22.6 Million for Center for Collaborative Research on Mental Disorders

Press Release • July 01, 2003

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has funded a five-year, $22.6 million Center for Collaborative Genetic Studies on Mental Disorders at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Lithium Shows Promise Against Alzheimer’s in Mouse Model

Press Release • May 21, 2003

An enzyme crucial to formation of Alzheimer’s plaques and tangles may hold promise as a target for future medications, suggest studies in mice and cells.

NIMH Awards Howard University $6.5 Million

Press Release • January 25, 2002

Howard University Hospital Department of Psychiatry in the College of Medicine (HUCM) has been awarded $6.5 million from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for a five-year project to implement and develop research studies pertaining to mood and anxiety disorders.