Mania News and Research

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Probiotics for mental health? A new review finds promising signals and major gaps

This narrative review examines how psychobiotics may influence anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia through gut-brain pathways involving neurotransmitters, inflammation, immune regulation, gut barrier function, and stress signaling. Specific Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains showed encouraging effects, but wide differences in strains, doses, populations, and study designs currently limit clinical translation.

28 Aug 2026

Comprehensive BMJ review identifies most effective bipolar disorder treatments

The most comprehensive review to date has identified the most effective bipolar disorder treatments across different age groups and mood phases. It was published today in The BMJ.

11 Aug 2026

Motor abnormalities may predict multiple mental health disorders

Motor issues-such as coordination problems, motor slowing, or sudden, uncontrolled movements-have been recognized as signs of psychological disorders since the 1800s. How they map to mental health conditions, however, remains unknown.

22 Jul 2026

Low-dose lithium may protect brain networks in early Alzheimer’s disease

This perspective examines whether restoring physiological lithium levels could help protect cognition in early Alzheimer’s disease. It proposes that lithium may support cholinergic signaling and brain connectivity, but emphasizes that rigorous, safety-monitored clinical trials are needed.

21 Jul 2026

Researchers identify brain circuits responsible for triggering OCD symptoms

Most of the time, the origin of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is unknown, but in some rare cases, it starts after a brain injury, such as a stroke or a tumor.

7 Jul 2026

Review assesses the efficacy of creatine as an add-on therapy for depression

Walk into any gym supplement aisle and creatine is there, sold by the tub to people chasing bigger muscles. It is one of the most studied compounds in sports science.

30 Jun 2026

Large study uncovers brain network differences in bipolar disorder

New research from the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC has discovered subtle but widespread differences in the brain's communication networks in people with bipolar disorder, offering new insight into how illness severity and treatment may relate to brain wiring.

9 Jun 2026

Mapping brain circuits helps identify the causes of psychiatric symptoms

If a small stroke in one corner of the brain can tip a previously healthy person into mania or set off obsessions and compulsions where none existed before, then the circuit connected to that lesion is telling us something rare in psychiatry.

5 May 2026

Study isolates mania-specific genetic architecture in bipolar disorder

Researchers at King's College London and the University of Florence have, for the first time, identified the specific genetic blueprint of mania, the defining feature of bipolar disorder.

27 Jan 2026

Hallucinogen-related hospital care linked to higher risk of future mania

People who have received emergency or hospital care in Canada due to hallucinogen use have a six-fold increased risk of receiving care for mania in the next three years, according to a study published December 2nd in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Daniel Myran from North York General Hospital in Canada and colleagues.

2 Dec 2025

International experts urge the reclassification of postpartum psychosis to improve treatment

An international panel of leading women's mental health experts – including UVA Health's Jennifer Payne, MD – is calling to reclassify postpartum psychosis as its own category of mental illness to improve the care new mothers receive.

3 Nov 2025

New $4.4 million grant funds first study of prefrontal cortical stimulation in severe bipolar disorder

A University of Minnesota Medical School research team, led by Ziad Nahas, MD, has been awarded a $4.4 million grant for a first-in-the-world study of prefrontal cortical stimulation in severe bipolar disorder.

31 Oct 2025

Understanding the role of paraventricular thalamic nucleus in bipolar disorder pathophysiology

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic mental health condition characterized by recurrent episodes of depression and mania.

4 Sep 2025

Patients recall inadequate disclosure of electroconvulsive therapy risks

The medical pros of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) are being exaggerated while the risks are being downplayed, suggest the findings of a survey on the type of information patients and their relatives/friends recall having been given before the procedure, and published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

17 Aug 2025

Late-life mood disorders may signal neurodegenerative diseases

Depression and bipolar disorder of late onset may represent more than just mental health conditions. Growing evidence suggests these late-life mood disorders (LLMDs) could be not merely risk factors, but rather early warning signs of neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, even when they appear years before memory loss or other cognitive symptoms become apparent.

9 Jun 2025

Scientists find links between bipolar disorder and rare loss-of-function variants in two genes

Scientists at deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen, reveal today in Nature Genetics associations between bipolar disorder and rare loss-of-function variants in two genes.

25 Mar 2025

Study uncovers a significant presence of manic symptoms in schizophrenia patients

In a notable Genomic Press research report, researchers at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki have uncovered a significant presence of manic symptoms in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs), offering valuable insights that could reshape treatment approaches.

11 Feb 2025