Active clinical trials for "Bipolar Disorder"

This study evaluates the cultural and linguistic sensitivity and psychometric properties of a set of four adapted measurement instruments essential to determining the efficacy of group-psychoeducation for patients with bipolar disorder in Rwanda, and one screening tool for bipolar disorder. The four well-known instruments are; The Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), The Medical Adherence Scale (MARS), The Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale-9 (ISMI-9), and the Mood disorder Questionnaire (MDQ). Each instrument will be culturally adapted and validated using a forward-backward translation, consensus conference, and cognitive interviews.

Background: The pathophysiological mechanisms of bipolar disorder are not completely clarified and several hypothesis have already been formulated including the role of monoamines, gama amino butyric acid (GABA) and glutamate. GABA is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter while glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter. Genes that play a role in GABA metabolism and in the activity of GABA neurons are very important to understand the GABA function, once they affect neurodevelopment and its dysfunctions may predispose to neuropsychiatric diseases. The two genes that are going to be study in this project are glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD1) and reelin (Reln). The enzyme glutamic acid descarboxylase (GAD67) metabolizes glutamate in GABA in the pre synaptic neuronal regions and is coded by the gene GAD1. Reelin is secretory serine protease with dual roles in mammalian brain: embryologically, it guides neurons and radial glial cells to their corrected positions in the developing brain; in adult brain, Reelin is involved in a signaling pathway which underlies neurotransmission, memory formation and synaptic plasticity. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) studies on bipolar disorder show a number of alterations in cerebral level of GABA and glutamate in different cerebral areas when compared to healthy subjects and other mood disorders. Objective: Investigate in bipolar patients and healthy controls the association of GAD1 and Reln single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNP) and cerebral levels of GABA/glutamate on MRS. Methods: 70 symptomatic bipolar I patients medication free and 70 healthy controls are going to be genotyped for GAD1 and Reln SNPs and GABA/glutamate MRS. Key words: GAD1, GAD67, bipolar, GABA, Glutamate, Reelin, Rln, Spectroscopy.

The purpose of the research is to study brain structure, function and chemistry of patients with bipolar disorder who are receiving lithium, an FDA-approved treatment for bipolar mania, in order to better understand who benefits from treatment and why they respond to medications. Studying this may help improve treatment and outcome in patients with bipolar disorder.

This study aims to 1) investigate the differences and variances in circadian rhythms at several levels, including physical activity, dim light melatonin onset, diurnal patterns of cortisol, and body temperature between the offspring of patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and offspring of healthy parents by using a high-risk study design; and 2) determine whether these indicators correlate with psychopathological symptoms as measured by the psychometric measurements.

Bipolar disorder is a complex, multifactorial disorder with the intervention of genetic vulnerability factors. To help the identification of these genetic factors and to improve genotype-phenotype correlation, the identification of endophenotype through the exploration of vulnerability characteristics in unaffected first degree relatives have been recommended. For this purpose, the investigator include bipolar patients, unaffected first degree relatives and control subjects to perform genetic association studies and subphenotype analyses. In this study the investigator will focus on subgroups defined according to the existence of abnormal circadian rhythm (a major indicator of bipolar vulnerability). Lithium is the leading treatment of bipolar disorders but prophylactic lithium response is highly variable and difficult to predict due to lack of biomarkers of response. To explore lithium response variability and to identify biomarkers of response, the investigator characterise lithium response using "ALDA" scale to conduct pharmacogenetic studies and pharmacokinetic studies of lithium extended release, in the subpopulation of patients treated with lithium. As lithium is a circadian agent, the investigator will also explore the links between lithium response and circadian phenotypes. Finally, using Li7 magnetic spectroscopy, the investigator will compare lithium brain distribution in a small sample of good and partial responders to lithium.

Significant changes in brain morphology are observed in people with first-episode psychosis. Studies have shown that total brain volume and particular brain structures are decreased in people with psychosis disorders. Recent evidence suggests that some atypical antipsychotic drugs can maintain or increase brain volumes. Thus, we plan to use MRI scans to measure changes in brain morphology in subjects recently diagnosed with bipolar or psychosis disorders who are taking the atypical antipsychotic drugs aripiprazole or risperidone. Secondary objectives include taking blood samples for fasting metabolic indices and neuropsychiatric measures for comparisons between drug treatments.

Prospective multicentre observational study for treatment approaches in at-risk individuals. Furthermore the purpose of this study is to test feasibility of a clinical staging model and validate diagnostic tools to identify individuals at risk state for the development of BD.

The aim of this study is to explore relation between the comorbidity of different bipolar disorders with alcoholism and neuropsychiatric function and candidate genes. The investigators plan to establish genetic validity for this subtype of alcoholism. In addition, by comparing this subtyped alcoholism to normal control, the investigators plan to examine the genetic validity of such comorbidity. The investigators plan to find specific clinical characteristic from neuropsychiatric aspects of such subtype for future early diagnosis, prediction and prevention.

The aim of this study is to explore the levels of internalized stigma in a sample of young patients with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

For the moment, the detection of a mood episode in Bipolar Disorder (BD) relies on the appearance of the first clinical signs that the clinician detect or that the patient becomes aware of and reports to the clinician. Since physiological parameters such as cardiac rhythms, respiratory rate, voice characteristics and actigraphy seem to be related to the onset of a mood episode, information collected through the combined monitoring of multiple selected physiological parameters (such as cardiac rhythms, respiratory rate, movements, voice) during wake and sleep time, using wearable user friendly systems included into garments as well as with a smartphone, may offer a new perspective in the long-term treatment of BD.