While lithium is the first line of treatment for bipolar disorder, it is only effective in approximately 50% of patients. It can take months to find an effective treatment for a particular patient, during which time they can often experience worsening of symptoms. Our goal is to be able to predict which patients will respond to lithium or other treatments in order to improve outcomes. We are utilizing high field 7.0 Tesla neuroimaging to search for brain features correlated with lithium response in patients with bipolar disorder.
Mood Trajectories and Outcomes Lab