$9M grant awarded to University of Cincinnati for bipolar disorder research

He and his BITREC team plan to further study these areas by visualizing them in healthy people and in people with bipolar disorder during several different early phases of illness. They will then view the brain’s physiological response to two mechanistically different, but widely used FDA-approved medications prescribed to treat bipolar disorder. More than 400 people will be recruited for this study.

“We think that by viewing what’s happening in people very early before bipolar disorder has progressed too far, we can really refine our understanding of this disease,” says Strakowski. “We hope to understand how different people respond to different treatments, with the ultimate goal of being able to predict what might work best for each individual.”

Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness that causes dramatic shifts in a person’s mood, energy and ability to function. It can strike at any age, but most commonly develops in adolescence or early adulthood. The disorder is characterized by alternating episodes of mania and depression, often with periods of normal mood in between. Some symptoms of a manic episode include increased energy, activity and restlessness, excessively “high” or overly euphoric mood, and extreme irritability. In contrast, a depressive episode is characterized by a lasting sad, anxious, or empty mood, feelings of hopelessness or pessimism, and decreased energy.

An NIMH–supported study estimates that 1 percent of adolescents between 14 and 18 meet the criteria for bipolar disorder, or a similar, milder illness known as cyclothymia, suggesting it may be as common among youths as it is among adults.

BITREC studies will be conducted in UC’s Center for Imaging Research. Partners on the grant include Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Indiana University and the University of Iowa.

Co-investigators from UC include Caleb Adler, MD, Melissa DelBello, MD, Jim Eliassen, PhD, Paul Keck, MD, Richard Komoroski, MD, and Susan McElroy, MD, all of the department of psychiatry, and William Ball, MD, and Jing-Huei Lee, PhD, both from biomedical engineering.

Psychiatry faculty at UC are affiliated with the Neuroscience Institute—a collaborative of nine academic departments at the UC College of Medicine, the University Hospital and independent physician practice groups. The institute is dedicated to patient care, research, education and the development of new medical technologies.