title: Reviewing medications for bipolar disorder: understanding the mechanisms of action.
abstract: Modern psychiatry is beginning to understand mood disorders according to a neuroplastic rather than a neurochemical model. Neuroplasticity is the brain's ongoing ability to restructure itself over a lifetime by making new neural connections. Patients with mood disorders have been found to have neuroplastic changes, including reductions in hippocampal volume, glial and neuronal cell density, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Using the neuroplasticity model of mood disorders, specific neurobiological mechanisms can be targeted for treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Gerard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sanacora
mesh_terms: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy*; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000187:drug effects*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents