The Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Program has been a world leader in bipolar disorder research since Waltraud (Wally) Prechter, philanthropist and bipolar disorder advocate, joined forces with U‑M in 2004 to transform our understanding of the foundations of bipolar disorder.
Recently retired faculty member Sue O’Shea, Ph.D., who served as the director of the University of Michigan Center for Pluripotent Stem Cell Research, is a pioneering figure in the field. Through a unique collaboration with the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF), cell lines derived in her lab will be made available to researchers globally. This partnership will significantly increase the number of samples available for research and will provide scientists with easy access to a broader range of genotypes.
Building on Dr. O’Shea’s work, Paul Jenkins, Ph.D., associate director of the Prechter Program and associate professor of pharmacology and psychiatry, is advancing research through additional laboratory studies. “We are treating the symptoms of bipolar disorder with drugs but not treating the cause, because we are still finding out what the cause is,” says Dr. Jenkins. “Once we find out the cause, we need to ask, ‘Can we design therapies to alter this disease and change lives?’”
Sarah Sperry, Ph.D., associate director of the Prechter Program and her team at the Emotional and Temporal Dynamics Laboratory have also identified a complex relationship between alcohol and bipolar disorder, suggesting there is more than “self-medicating” behind patients’ consumption of alcohol. “Our study shows that when an individual with bipolar disorder drinks more than is typical for them, they are more likely to show an increase in depressive and/or manic symptoms over the following six months, even if they did not have a co-occurring alcohol use disorder,” says Dr. Sperry. “Contrary to the self medication hypothesis, there was no evidence that having increased mood symptoms predicted lasting changes in alcohol use over the following six months.”
The team has already begun following up on the new findings to try to identify psychological and neurophysiological factors that contribute to alcohol use and symptom changes in bipolar disorder. Ultimately, they hope to develop new interventions that target both.
