Salk Institute scientists discover how lithium might work in the brain as well as how to identifying those who will show a clinical response to lithium compared to those who will not…
LA JOLLA–The brain cells of patients with bipolar disorder, characterized by severe swings between depression and elation, are more sensitive to stimuli than other people’s brain cells, researchers have discovered. The finding, published October 28, 2015 in the journal Nature, is among the first to show at a cellular level how the disorder affects the brain. Moreover, it reveals why some patients respond to treatment with lithium while others don’t.
Salk scientists discover cellular differences between brain cells from bipolar patients that respond to lithium and those that don’t. Neurons (white/red) from a subset of bipolar patients show changes in their electrical activity in response to lithium…“After a few months, it’s possible that this hyperexcitability becomes too much for the cell to handle and it crashes into a less excitable state,” says Gage. “That could signal the shift between the depression and mania that patients experience.”Read article….
Leave a Reply