The Differential Levels of Inflammatory Cytokines and BDNF among Bipolar Spectrum Disorders.

Objective: Emerging evidence suggests that inflammation and neurodegeneration underlies bipolar disorder. To investigate biological markers of cytokines and brain-derived neurotrophic factor between bipolar I, bipolar II, and other specified bipolar disorder with short duration hypomania may support the association with inflammatory dysregulation and bipolar disorder and, more specifically, provide evidence for other specified bipolar disorder with short duration hypomania patients were similar to bipolar II disorder patients from a biological marker perspective.

Methods: We enrolled patients with bipolar I disorder (n=234), bipolar II disorder (n=260), other specified bipolar disorder with short duration hypomania (n=243), and healthy controls (n=140).