Causation and Effects of Bipolar Disorder and What it Means for the Future

Bipolar disorder, as defined by Honor Whiteman, is said to be characterized as one who goes through dramatic mood changes as well as effecting your everyday quality of life. The actual cause of the disorder is yet to be determined, however through this last discovery we as a society are that much closer to finding the cause. We do know what aspects of cognition as well as how aging along with the disorder can have a compounding effect on quality of life because of Dr. Weisenbach’s study. In the article it is explained that our current understanding of bipolar disorder is that many genes work alongside environmental factors to contribute to the development of the disorder. The international team that is working towards finding the causation of this disorder compared the difficulty to finding a needle in a haystack. To work against such odds they gathered genetic data from a large quantity of individuals with the disorder to healthy individuals. They were able to find 5 risk regions in DNA that is associated with bipolar disorder.

This recent study provided better statistics for the previously known three regions associated with the disorder which are ANK3, ODZ4, and TRANK1. More importantly two new areas were discovered which are ADCY2 on chromosome 5 and MIR2113-POU3F2 on chromosome 6. The significance is more closely associated with the discovery of ADCY2 because this gene codes for an enzyme in signaling to nerve cells. This discovery can lead to various treatment methods targeting the damage of this gene in those with the disorder. The real application of these discoveries is to how help those with the disorder and with this discovery we are one step closer.

We have made much more progress in regards to the effects of aging with bipolar disorder rather than the causation. Weisenbach’s study illustrates various cognitive skills that are hindered due to bipolar disorder such as executive functioning, processing speed, and emotion processing. Through neuropsychological evaluations that tested various areas of the brain that deals with memory, attention and executive functioning, emotional processing, and a multitude of others. This research is able to provide clinicians with developing more advanced rehabilitation programs to focus on the deficits that come along with bipolar disorder and aging.

In both cases research for bipolar disorder is advancing and we are getting closer to creating more effective treatment plans for individuals who are diagnosed with this tragic disorder. The goal, just as for any other disease or disorder, is to erase it from a world and finding different elements in both causation and effect will continue to help us fulfill our goal.

Link to Article: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/273877.php

References:

Whiteman, H. (2014, March 12). Researches discover two new genetic regions for bipolar disorder. Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/273877.php

Weisenback, S. L., Marshall, D., Weldon, A. L., Ryan, K. A., Vederman, A. C., Kamali, M., . . .

Langenecker, S. A. (n.d.). The double burden of age and disease on cognition and quality of life in bipolar disorder. International journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 952-961.