Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a mood disorder that affects nearly a million Canadians and has significant impacts on functioning and overall health. BD consists of cycling between different mood states: depression (low mood), euthymia (neutral mood), and mania (elevated mood), characterized by impaired functioning and psychological distress. It is typically treated with medications known as mood stabilizers in addition to psychological therapy. These medications are effective at controlling mood; however, they are less effective at treating other associated symptoms. Common symptoms seen in BD are deficits in cognitive function, such as memory, attention, and executive function. These deficits are pronounced during the depressive episodes; however, they often remain prevalent in euthymia and mania. The persistence of cognitive deficits is one of the leading causes and continued morbidity and psychosocial impairment, which affects relationships and the ability to perform daily tasks. There are no treatments that improve cognition, due in part to an incomplete understanding of what mechanisms contribute to cognitive dysfunction in BD. Our research seeks to bridge this gap. Mounting evidence has suggested that increased inflammation and reactivity of brain cells called astrocytes leads to cognitive dysfunction in disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. Studies in bipolar disorder have also suggested these processes in the brain may be implicated; however, to the best of our knowledge, this has not been studied in living participants using sophisticated imaging techniques. Our goal is to use positron emission tomography (PET) and blood markers to determine if cognitive function in the depression and euthymia stages of BD is associated with inflammation and astrocyte dysfunction. This could lead to the development of novel treatments that target inflammation and astrocytes that improve cognition in BD, thereby reducing the overall morbidity and burden of this disease.