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.

University of Cincinnati/Lindner Center of HOPE, University of California San Diego, The University of Texas at Austin, and The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research join the six inaugural institutions in the network. Working in partnership with clinicians, researchers, and people living with bipolar disorder, the BD² Integrated Network was established to expand knowledge of bipolar disorder while accelerating the translation of that knowledge into clinical care. An international site will be announced in the coming weeks.

These new sites significantly expand the BD² Integrated Network and propel our collaborative model forward. This is an important step toward realizing our mission to shorten the time it takes for research to improve treatment for those living with bipolar disorder and making our network more accessible to people across the country."

Cara Altimus, PhD, managing director for BD² and managing director at the Milken Institute

The BD² Integrated Network is a groundbreaking, two-pronged approach connecting bipolar disorder research and care. It combines a traditional longitudinal cohort study of 4,000 participants and a learning health network to iteratively improve outcomes for people with bipolar disorder. Clinical sites have accelerated recruitment, with more than 500 individuals already participating in the study.

These four institutions expand the BD² Integrated Network to 10 sites alongside the six inaugural sites: Brigham and Women's Hospital-McLean Hospital, University of California Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins University, Mayo Clinic, University of Michigan, and UTHealth Houston.

"This eagerly anticipated expansion will bring new clinicians, scientists, and participants into the network and strengthen our ability to accelerate discovery of the behavioral and biological drivers of disease in people living with bipolar disorder while advancing treatment," said Katherine Burdick, PhD, Vice Chair for Research, Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and BD² Integrated Network scientific director.

Bipolar disorder is a highly complex and heterogeneous disorder, and more than 70% of people with bipolar disorder are misdiagnosed at least once. It takes seven years on average to diagnose bipolar disorder, and less than 50% of those who are diagnosed find an effective treatment. The BD² Integrated Network will propel clinical improvement in bipolar disorder treatment and diagnosis through the combined efforts of deep phenotyping, consensus guideline adherence and development, and integration of research and care across sites.

"This unique network model is changing the way we conduct research and measure outcomes for bipolar disorder. Our new sites will contribute to an unprecedented research and clinical care ecosystem that drives innovation for interventions and improved treatments to improve the lives of all those living with bipolar disorder," said Mark Frye, MD, BD² Integrated Network scientific director and Stephen & Shelley Jackson Family Professor of Individualized Medicine, Mayo Clinic.

Learn more about the BD² Integrated Network at https://www.bipolardiscoveries.org/our-work/integrated-network/