Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment (Dec 2023)
Functional Alterations in Patients with Bipolar Disorder and Their Unaffected First-Degree Relatives: Insight from Genetic, Epidemiological, and Neuroimaging Data
Abstract
Haonan Zhang,1 Jun Chen,1,2 Yiru Fang1– 4 1Clinical Research Center, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Psychiatry & Affective Disorders Center, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 4CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Jun Chen, Clinical Research Center, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, No. 600 Wanping South Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200030, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected] Yiru Fang, Department of Psychiatry & Affective Disorders Center, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, No. 197 Ruijin 2nd Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai, 200025, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: Bipolar disorder (BD) profoundly affects cognitive and psychosocial functioning, leading to a significant illness burden on patients and their families. Genetic factors are predominant in the onset of bipolar disorder and functional impairments. This disorder exhibits a strong family aggregation, with heritability estimates reaching up to 80%. Individuals with BD often experience impaired functioning, especially in significant areas such as physical performance, sleep, cognition, interpersonal interactions, socioeconomic status, family and marital relationships, work and school performance, well-being, and life expectancy. However, patients with different subtypes exhibit significant heterogeneity in social functioning, cognition, and creativity levels. There are notable differences in psychosocial and cognitive function in their unaffected first-degree relatives (UFR) who do not suffer but may carry susceptibility genes compared to healthy control (HC) without a family history. The observations indicate common genetic structures between BD patients and their UFR, which results in varying degrees of functional abnormalities. Therefore, this article mainly provides evidence on cognition, creativity, and psychosocial functioning in patients with BD and their UFR to provide a more comprehensive understanding of this critical topic in the field of BD. By integrating various findings, including clinical data and neuroimaging studies, our article aims to provide insights and valuable information for a deeper exploration of the pathogenesis of BD and the development of more targeted therapeutic strategies in the future.Keywords: bipolar disorder, cognition, psychosocial function, creativity, unaffected first-degree relatives, genetics
