Do you feel up when you go up? A pilot study of a virtual reality manic-like mood induction paradigm.

Objectives: In order to understand the working mechanisms of mania, it is necessary to perform studies during the onset of manic (-like) mood states. However, clinical mania is difficult to examine experimentally. A viable method to study manic mood like states is mood induction, but mood induction tasks thus far show variable effectiveness.

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in a preexisting longitudinal study of patients with recently diagnosed bipolar disorder: Indications for increases in manic symptoms.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic interfered in the daily lives of people and is assumed to adversely affect mental health. However, the effects on mood (in)stability of bipolar disorder (BD) patients and the comparison to pre-COVID-19 symptom severity levels are unknown.

Method: Between April and September, 2020, symptoms and well-being were assessed in the Bipolar Netherlands Cohort (BINCO) study of recently diagnosed patients with BD I and II.

Higher cortisol levels may proceed a manic episode and are related to disease severity in patients with bipolar disorder.

Background: Regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is implicated in the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder (BD). However, the relationship between HPA-activity and disease severity is not fully elucidated. In this pilot study we aimed to explore the temporal relationship between HPA-activity and the risk of a manic episode in BD patients type I, by assessing long-term hair cortisol concentrations (HCC).

Traumatic experiences, family functioning, and mood disorder development in bipolar offspring.

Objectives: Studies in children of patients affected with bipolar disorder (BD; bipolar offspring) are at high risk to develop mood disorders. Our aim is to investigate how environmental factors such as childhood trauma and family functioning relate to the development of mood disorders in offspring at familial risk for BD.

Design: The current study is part of a longitudinal prospective cohort study among offspring of parents with BD.

T Cell Deficits and Overexpression of Hepatocyte Growth Factor in Anti-inflammatory Circulating Monocytes of Middle-Aged Patients with Bipolar Disorder Characterized by a High Prevalence of the Metabolic Syndrome.

Background: We previously reported T cell deficits and pro-inflammatory gene activation in circulating monocytes of two cohorts of bipolar disorder (BD) patients, a cohort of postpartum psychosis patients and in bipolar offspring. Pro-inflammatory gene activation occurred in two clusters of mutually correlating genes, cluster 1 for inflammation-related cytokines/factors, cluster 2 for motility, chemotaxis, and metabolic factors.

Aim: To verify these cellular immune abnormalities in yet another cohort [the bipolar stress study (BiSS) cohort] of relative old (52 years, median) BD patients and to relate immune abnormalities to hair cortisol levels, measured in this cohort and representing long-term systemic cortisol levels, and to the presence of the metabolic syndrome (MetS), which was prevalent in 29% of the BiSS patients.

Recent negative life events increase hair cortisol concentrations in patients with bipolar disorder.

Life events induce stress, which is considered to negatively impact the course of disease in patients with bipolar disorder (BD), its effects being predominantly mediated by cortisol. Cortisol in scalp hair has been identified as a biomarker for assessing long-term cortisol levels, and allows clarifying the relation between life events, hair cortisol concentrations (HCC), and clinical course over time. In 71 BD patients, we analyzed the proximal 3 cm of hair, reflecting 3 months of cortisol production, and investigated the association between HCC, the number of life events, the amount of social support, and mood in the 3 months prior to the hair assessment and between HCC and mood in the subsequent 3 months.

Effects of mood state on divided attention in patients with bipolar disorder: evidence for beneficial effects of subclinical manic symptoms.

A relatively small number of studies have been dedicated to the differential effects of the current mood state on cognition in patients with a bipolar disorder (BD). The aim of the current study was to investigate the effect of current mood state on divided attention (DA) performance, and specifically examine possible beneficial effects of the (hypo-) manic state. Over a maximum period of 24 months, medication use, divided attention test (a subtest of the Test for Attentional Performance (TAP)) was assessed every 6 months in 189 outpatients with BD.