TY - JOUR A1 - Volkert, Julia A1 - Zierhut, Kathrin C. A1 - Schiele, Miriam A. A1 - Wenzel, Martina A1 - Kopf, Juliane A1 - Kittel-Schneider, Sarah A1 - Reif, Andreas T1 - Predominant polarity in bipolar disorder and validation of the polarity index in a German sample N2 - Background: A large number of patients with bipolar disorder (BD) can be characterized by predominant polarity (PP), which has important implications for relapse prevention. Recently, Popovic et al. (EUR NEUROPSYCHOPHARM 22(5): 339–346, 2012) proposed the Polarity Index (PI) as a helpful tool in the maintenance treatment of BD. As a numeric expression, it reflects the efficacy of drugs used in treatment of BD. In the present retrospective study, we aimed to validate this Index in a large and well characterized German bipolar sample. Methods: We investigated 336 bipolar patients (BP) according to their PP and calculated the PI for each patient in order to prove if maintenance treatment differs according to their PP. Furthermore, we analysed whether PP is associated with demographic and clinical characteristics of BP. Results: In our sample, 63.9% of patients fulfilled criteria of PP: 169 patients were classified as depressive predominant polarity (DPP), 46 patients as manic predominant polarity (MPP). The two groups differed significantly in their drug regime: Patients with DPP were more often medicated with lamotrigine and antidepressants, patients with MPP were more often treated with lithium, valproate, carbamazepine and first generation antipsychotics. However, patients with DPP and MPP did not differ significantly with respect to the PI, although they received evidence-based and guideline-driven treatment. Conclusion: The reason for this negative finding might well be that for several drugs, which were used frequently, no PI value is available. Nevertheless we suggest PP as an important concept in the planning of BD maintenance treatment. KW - Bipolar disorder KW - Predominant polarity KW - Polarity index KW - Maintenance treatment KW - Depression KW - Mania KW - EBM Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-111042 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Van den Hove, Daniel A1 - Jakob, Sissi Brigitte A1 - Schraut, Karla-Gerlinde A1 - Kenis, Gunter A1 - Schmitt, Angelika Gertrud A1 - Kneitz, Susanne A1 - Scholz, Claus-Jürgen A1 - Wiescholleck, Valentina A1 - Ortega, Gabriela A1 - Prickaerts, Jos A1 - Steinbusch, Harry A1 - Lesch, Klaus-Peter T1 - Differential Effects of Prenatal Stress in 5-Htt Deficient Mice: Towards Molecular Mechanisms of Gene x Environment Interactions JF - PLoS ONE N2 - Prenatal stress (PS) has been shown to influence the development of the fetal brain and to increase the risk for the development of psychiatric disorders in later life. Furthermore, the variation of human serotonin transporter (5-HTT, SLC6A4) gene was suggested to exert a modulating effect on the association between early life stress and the risk for depression. In the present study, we used a 5-HttxPS paradigm to investigate whether the effects of PS are dependent on the 5-Htt genotype. For this purpose, the effects of PS on cognition, anxiety-and depression-related behavior were examined using a maternal restraint stress paradigm of PS in C57BL6 wild-type (WT) and heterozygous 5-Htt deficient (5-Htt +/-) mice. Additionally, in female offspring, a genome-wide hippocampal gene expression profiling was performed using the Affymetrix GeneChip (R) Mouse Genome 430 2.0 Array. 5-Htt +/- offspring showed enhanced memory performance and signs of reduced anxiety as compared to WT offspring. In contrast, exposure of 5-Htt +/- mice to PS was associated with increased depressive-like behavior, an effect that tended to be more pronounced in female offspring. Further, 5-Htt genotype, PS and their interaction differentially affected the expression of numerous genes and related pathways within the female hippocampus. Specifically, MAPK and neurotrophin signaling were regulated by both the 5-Htt +/- genotype and PS exposure, whereas cytokine and Wnt signaling were affected in a 5-Htt genotypexPS manner, indicating a genexenvironment interaction at the molecular level. In conclusion, our data suggest that although the 5-Htt +/- genotype shows clear adaptive capacity, 5-Htt +/- mice -particularly females-at the same time appear to be more vulnerable to developmental stress exposure when compared to WT offspring. Moreover, hippocampal gene expression profiles suggest that distinct molecular mechanisms mediate the behavioral effects of the 5-Htt genotype, PS exposure, and their interaction. KW - Serotonin transporter polymorphism KW - Acute tryptophan depletion KW - Anxiety-like behavior KW - Long-term depression KW - Knock-out mice KW - Major depression KW - Interferon-alpha KW - Physiological functions KW - Restraint stress KW - Bipolar disorder Y1 - 2011 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-135111 VL - 6 IS - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Evers, Ann-Kristin A1 - Veeh, Julia A1 - McNeill, Rhiannon A1 - Reif, Andreas A1 - Kittel-Schneider, Sarah T1 - C-reactive protein concentration in bipolar disorder: association with genetic variants JF - International Journal of Bipolar Disorders N2 - Background Several recent studies have investigated the role of C-reactive protein (CRP) in bipolar disorder (BD), but few studies have directly investigated the interaction between CRP genetic variants and peripheral CRP concentration across different phases of BD. In this study, we aimed to replicate previous findings that demonstrated altered CRP levels in BD, and to investigate whether there is an association of peripheral protein expression with genetic variants in the CRP gene. Methods 221 patients were included in the study, of which 183 (all episodes, 46 not medicated, 174 medicated) were genotyped for CRP single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) shown to influence peripheral CRP protein expression (rs1800947, rs2808630, rs1417938, rs1205). Results There were no differences in CRP levels associated with the genotypes, only regarding the rs1205 SNP there were significantly different CRP protein expression between the genotypes when taking body mass index, age, BD polarity, subtype and leukocyte number into account. However, we could show significantly elevated CRP protein expression in manic patients compared to euthymic and depressed patients, independent from genotype. Medication was found to have no effect on CRP protein expression. Conclusions These results indicate that low grade inflammation might play a role in mania and might be rather a state than a trait marker of bipolar disorder. KW - Bipolar disorder KW - Genotype KW - C-reactive protein KW - Biomarke KW - Inflammatio Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-202289 VL - 7 ER -