Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. Symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe.

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is a mental health disorder that was previously called manic depressive psychosis or manic depression. The condition is typically characterized by a mood that "swings" from a depressive state where an individual may feel down and lethargic to a manic phase that may cause them to feel hyperactive and jittery.

Bipolar Disorder Symptoms

Bipolar Disorder Diagnosis

Bipolar Disorder Treatment

Bipolar Disorder Interventions

Bipolar Disorder Counseling

Intermittent Explosive Disorder Causes

Latest Bipolar Disorder News and Research

Lithium shifts circadian rhythms early in bipolar disorder and may offer clues to treatment response

A randomized controlled trial shows that lithium treatment in bipolar disorder patients reduces daytime activity, advances its onset time, and increases volatility in circadian rest-activity patterns. These changes appear early and independently of mood, offering promise as early biomarkers of treatment response.

14 Apr 2025

High cholesterol may not signal heart disease risk in metabolically healthy people

The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, in collaboration with researchers across multiple institutions, has published a new study that challenges the long-held belief that high cholesterol correlates and even directly causes coronary artery disease, or plaque buildup in the arteries in metabolically healthy individuals.

7 Apr 2025

New virtual reality system aims to revolutionize psychiatric diagnosis

Researchers have developed a virtual reality-based system that shows promise in improving the differentiation between common mental health conditions, potentially paving the way for earlier and more personalized treatment.

31 Mar 2025

Genetic and environmental factors in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia affects millions worldwide, yet its causes remain one of the greatest medical mysteries. In an exclusive Genomic Press Interview, Dr. Consuelo Walss-Bass, a pioneering researcher in psychiatric genetics, shares how both genetic predisposition and environmental factors contribute to severe mental health disorders.

26 Mar 2025

Scientists find links between bipolar disorder and rare loss-of-function variants in two genes

Scientists at deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen, reveal today in Nature Genetics associations between bipolar disorder and rare loss-of-function variants in two genes.

25 Mar 2025

The Colorado psychedelic mushroom experiment has arrived

Colorado regulators are issuing licenses for providing psychedelic mushrooms and are planning to authorize the state's first "healing centers," where the mushrooms can be ingested under supervision, in late spring or early summer.

24 Mar 2025

Researchers reveal link between placental DNA methylation and neuropsychiatric disorders

An international team led by UPV/EHU and Biobizkaia reveals the relationship between placental DNA methylation and certain neuropsychiatric disorders.

20 Mar 2025

Four new institutions join BD² Integrated Network to improve bipolar disorder care

Today, Breakthrough Discoveries for thriving with Bipolar Disorder (BD²) announced four new national institutions to receive $2.3 million each to join the BD² Integrated Network, a collaborative research and clinical care model that will improve care, interventions, and outcomes for people living with bipolar disorder.

12 Mar 2025

Excessive screen time linked to manic symptoms in teens

Researchers examine the association between excessive screen time and manic symptoms in early adolescence.

25 Feb 2025

Exploring ketamine's potential in the fight against treatment-resistant depression

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide, with a significant proportion of patients (10-20%) progressing to treatment-resistant depression (TRD).

19 Feb 2025

Genetic mutation linked to schizophrenia in both humans and mice

A genetic mutation found in two human patients with schizophrenia also increased schizophrenia-related behaviors in mice with the same mutation, a rare finding of a direct genetic link to psychosis, report researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and colleagues in Massachusetts and Germany.

19 Feb 2025

Deny and delay? California seeks penalties for insurers that repeatedly get it wrong

When Colleen Henderson's 3-year-old daughter complained of pain while using the bathroom, doctors brushed it off as a urinary tract infection or constipation, common maladies in the potty-training years.

18 Feb 2025

Study identifies novel enhancers linked to neuropsychiatric disorders

Neuropsychiatric disorders are becoming increasingly prevalent. Given their complex and multifactorial pathogenesis, there is an urgent need for effective and targeted therapies that can improve patients' quality of life.

13 Feb 2025

Mental health drives med student dropout rate

Around 1 in 5 UK medical students considers dropping out of medical school, with mental health issues a key contributor to their intention to abandon medicine, suggest the results of an observational study published in the open access journal BMJ Open.

11 Feb 2025

UCLA Health launches study on ketogenic diet for bipolar disorder in youth

UCLA Health is set to begin a multi-site pilot study to explore whether a ketogenic diet, when combined with mood stabilizing medications, helps stabilize mood symptoms in teenagers and young adults who have bipolar disorder.

8 Feb 2025

Study aims to explore structural alterations in the brains of people with bipolar disorder

A new study, led by USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI), will explore structural alterations in the brains of people with bipolar disorder (BD), a chronic mental illness with one of the highest rates of attempted suicide - and for which no biological tools currently exist to guide diagnosis or treatment.

29 Jan 2025

Study offers new insight into how nature and nurture shape aggression in males

Like humans, mice will compete over territory and mates, and show increased confidence in their fighting skills the more they win.

24 Jan 2025

New genomic insights could transform bipolar disorder treatment

Study published in Nature identifies nearly 300 genomic regions associated with bipolar disorder, and 36 key genes involved in the disease.

23 Jan 2025

Mental health risks higher for pregnant people with MS

Pregnant people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have a higher chance of experiencing mental illness both during their pregnancy and in the first years after they give birth than those without MS, according to a study published in the January 22, 2025 online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

22 Jan 2025

Monoamine neurotransmitters emerge as architects of brain physiology

A collaborative effort between Mount Sinai and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has shed valuable light on how monoamine neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, and now histamine help regulate brain physiology and behavior through chemical bonding of these monoamines to histone proteins, the core DNA-packaging proteins of our cells.

9 Jan 2025