"Bipolar Protection" - Dan Goldberg
Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai identified a brain mechanism in siblings of bipolar patients that makes them resilient to bipolar disorder, according to a study in the American Journal of Psychiatry, which they say suggests that the brain is able to adapt to the biological risk for bipolar disorder. “Most of the risk factors for bipolar disorder, including genetic risk, early childhood adversity, and trauma, are not modifiable,” said the study’s senior author Sophia Frangou, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “By contrast, this research shows that the brain can modify its connectivity to overcome biological adversity. This gives hope that we can harness this natural brain potential to develop preventive interventions.”
- Sophia Frangou, MD, PhD, Professor, Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai