Widespread white matter tract aberrations in youth with familial risk for bipolar disorder.

Few studies have examined multiple measures of white matter (WM) differences in youth with familial risk for bipolar disorder (FR-BD). To investigate WM in the FR-BD group, we used three measures of WM structure and two methods of analysis. We used fractional anisotropy (FA), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) to analyze diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) findings in 25 youth with familial risk for bipolar disorder, defined as having both a parent with BD and mood dysregulation, and 16 sex-, age-, and IQ-matched healthy controls.

Preliminary study of anxiety symptoms, family dysfunction, and the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met genotype in offspring of parents with bipolar disorder.

Several genetic and environmental factors place youth offspring of parents with bipolar disorder (BD) at high risk for developing mood and anxiety disorders. Recent studies suggest that anxiety symptoms, even at subclinical levels, have been associated with an increased risk for developing BD. The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene has been implicated in the pathophysiology of both BD and anxiety disorders.

Changes in brain activation following psychotherapy for youth with mood dysregulation at familial risk for bipolar disorder.

Background: Psychotherapy for youth with mood dysregulation can help stabilize mood and improve functioning, but the neural mechanisms of this improvement are not known. In this study we investigated the changes in brain activation underlying improvement in mood symptoms.

Methods: Twenty-four subjects (ages 13-17) participated: 12 patients with clinically significant symptoms of depression and/or mania, and 12 healthy comparison subjects (HC) matched for age and sex.

Reward processing in healthy offspring of parents with bipolar disorder.

Importance: Bipolar disorder (BD) is highly familial and characterized by deficits in reward processing. It is not known, however, whether these deficits precede illness onset or are a consequence of the disorder.

Objective: To determine whether anomalous neural processing of reward characterizes children at familial risk for BD in the absence of a personal history of a psychopathologic disorder.

Early intervention for symptomatic youth at risk for bipolar disorder: a randomized trial of family-focused therapy.

Objective: Depression and brief periods of (hypo)mania are linked to an increased risk of progression to bipolar I or II disorder (BD) in children of bipolar parents. This randomized trial examined the effects of a 4-month family-focused therapy (FFT) program on the 1-year course of mood symptoms in youth at high familial risk for BD, and explored its comparative benefits among youth in families with high versus low expressed emotion (EE).

Method: Participants were 40 youth (mean 12.

Reward processing in adolescents with bipolar I disorder.

Objective: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a debilitating psychiatric condition that commonly begins in adolescence, a developmental period that has been associated with increased reward seeking. Because youth with BD are especially vulnerable to negative risk-taking behaviors, understanding the neural mechanisms by which dysregulated affect interacts with the neurobehavioral processing of reward is clearly important. One way to clarify how manic symptoms evolve in BD is to "prime" the affect before presenting rewarding stimuli.

Abnormal amygdala and prefrontal cortex activation to facial expressions in pediatric bipolar disorder.

Objective: Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in pediatric bipolar disorder (BD) have reported greater amygdala and less dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation to facial expressions compared to healthy controls. The current study investigates whether these differences are associated with the early or late phase of activation, suggesting different temporal characteristics of brain responses.

Method: A total of 20 euthymic adolescents with familial BD (14 male) and 21 healthy control subjects (13 male) underwent fMRI scanning during presentation of happy, sad, and neutral facial expressions.

Characterization and factors associated with sleep quality in adolescents with bipolar I disorder.

Sleep disturbance is an early marker for bipolar disorder (BD) onset in youth. We characterized sleep quality in adolescents experiencing mania within the last 6-12 months. We examined the association between mood and sleep in 27 adolescents with BD and 24 matched healthy controls (HC).

Early psychosocial intervention for youth at risk for bipolar I or II disorder: a one-year treatment development trial.

Objectives: Previous studies have identified behavioral phenotypes that predispose genetically vulnerable youth to a later onset of bipolar I or II disorder, but few studies have examined whether early psychosocial intervention can reduce risk of syndromal conversion. In a one-year open trial, we tested a version of family-focused treatment adapted for youth at high risk for bipolar disorder (FFT-HR).

Methods: A referred sample of 13 children (mean 13.

Limbic and corpus callosum aberrations in adolescents with bipolar disorder: a tract-based spatial statistics analysis.

Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a common and debilitating condition, often beginning in adolescence. Converging evidence from genetic and neuroimaging studies indicates that white matter abnormalities may be involved in BD. In this study, we investigated white matter structure in adolescents with familial bipolar disorder using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and a whole brain analysis.