Click the following link to watch the report by Dr. Max Gomez:

Could Ketamine Help Children With Bipolar Disorder? « CBS New York.

For any parent raising a child affected by bipolar disorder, this is an invaluable interview.

This interview provides a complete description of the FOH phenotype and clarifies the confusion caused by DSM controversies.

An overview of the intranasal ketamine clinical study is presented by the study’s coordinator, Alyssa Bronsteen.

MOST IMPORTANT: this is your chance to meet a mother who has nurtured a son who has struggled with the symptoms of bipolar disorder his entire life.  Hear her describe her son’s life pre- and post- intranasal ketamine treatment.

Our research only gets done with YOUR support.  Help us bring relief to children fighting the effects of bipolar disorder.  Your financial support makes a world of difference.  And it enables JBRF to continue this important research.  Thank you for making these advances possible.

To evaluate the classification Disruptive Mood Disorder with Dysphoria (DMDD), proposed as an alternative to pediatric bipolar disorder and slated for inclusion in the next Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5), one need look no further than the research base from which it sprung.  The investigative group used existing DSM classifications and assumptions as the anchor points by which all data were measured.  However, 30 years of DSM-based research has not led to any breakthroughs or predictable diagnosis and treatment.

A seminal research initiative launched in 2010 by the NIMH divorces itself from DSM.  Dr. Tom Insel, Director, wrote, “Reliability [of a classification] is not the same as validity. As research increasingly reveals the brain circuitry for various forms of behaviors, we can look forward to a classification system validated by a knowledge of both the genetic risks and neural basis of mental illness.” The new paradigm, “makes no assumptions about current categories.”

Yet DMDD tenaciously reshuffles those old assumptions.  Of grave concern is that the new iteration calls for a treatment plan which we believe is contraindicated for the population.

For over a decade our foundation has supported a line of research consistent with the newly defined NIMH priorities. We have identified a unique clinical profile which unifies symptoms currently flung across the DSM spectrum. The profile incorporates the chronically explosive behaviors of “DMDD” as well as previously unconsidered symptoms. Significantly, the profile associates with a clear physiological deficit.  A 4+ year pilot study has used a novel treatment regimen for more than 50 severely ill children who fit the profile.  The treatment corrects the deficit and simultaneously relieves the problem behaviors and symptoms. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIe7idNqXZI&feature=youtu.be).  An FDA/IRB approved clinical study is now underway.

We submitted this information to the DSM-5 Task Force however they indicated no interest in further discussion.

Dr. Demitri Papolos, Director of Research for JBRF, developed and implemented a pilot study to explore the efficacy of intranasal ketamine as a treatment for children who have been diagnosed with early-onset bipolar disorder.  The study is in its fourth year and includes over 20 children and teens who fit the Fear of Harm profile (click here for a description of the Fear of Harm Phenotype) and struggle with thermoregulatory dysfunction (click here to access the study relevant to thermoregulation).

The children and teens participating in this pilot study had symptoms that were resistant to traditional treatment protocols for bipolar disorder.

Please click here to view the video.

The diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders in childhood would drastically reduce the effects of symptoms among the teenage population.  An investment in research now could save a countless number of teenagers from social impairment, behavioral issues, school/work failures and suicidal idealization.

Dr. Robert L. Findling, Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University, presents the findings of recent studies: psychiatric disorders were found to be not only prevalent but also substantially persistent among teenagers.

For your information we have provided a link to Dr. Findling’s presentation: Prevalence, Persistence, and Severity of Psychiatric Illness in Teens.

Your investment in research could reap dividends that will improve the chances for children to beat the symptoms and effects of psychiatric disorders.

Please consider making an investment in research that is focused solely on divining the cause of bipolar disorder in children.

Your donation today may mean relief for many – and for all the generations that will follow.  It is an investment in everyone’s future.

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Traditional antidepressants like Prozac work on a group of chemical messengers in the brain called the serotonin system. Researchers once thought that a lack of serotonin was the cause of depression, and that these drugs worked simply by boosting serotonin levels.

Recent research suggests a more complicated explanation. Serotonin drugs work by stimulating the birth of new neurons, which eventually form new connections in the brain. But creating new neurons takes time — a few weeks, at least — which is thought to explain the delay in responding to antidepressant medications.

Ketamine, in contrast, activates a different chemical system in the brain — the glutamate system. Researcher Ron Duman at Yale thinks ketamine rapidly increases the communication among existing neurons by creating new connections. This is a quicker process than waiting for new neurons to form and accomplishes the same goal of enhancing brain circuit activity.

To study how ketamine might work, Duman turned to rats. The first image below shows the neuron of a rat that has received no ketamine treatment. The small bumps and spots on the side of the neuron are budding connections between neurons.

A rat neuron prior to ketamine treatment. Ronald Duman/Yale University

Just hours after giving the rats doses of ketamine, Duman saw a dramatic increase in the number of new connections between brain cells. This increase in neuronal connectivity is thought to relieve depression.

A rat neuron after ketamine treatment. Ronald Duman/Yale University

via I Wanted To Live: New Depression Drugs Offer Hope For Toughest Cases : Shots – Health Blog : NPR.

Click here to read the NPR article.

The findings of the study presented below are in line with the data recorded in the study conducted by JBRF researchers: Sleep, Activity Patterns and Temperature Study. JBRF will continue to explore the role of thermoregulation in the biological basis of the Fear-of-Harm type of juvenile bipolar disorder.

Lithium salt has been widely used in treatment of Bipolar Disorder, a mental disturbance associated with circadian rhythm disruptions. Lithium mildly but consistently lengthens circadian period of behavioural rhythms in multiple organisms. To systematically address the impacts of lithium on circadian pacemaking and the underlying mechanisms, we measured locomotor activity in mice in vivo following chronic lithium treatment, and also tracked clock protein dynamics (PER2::Luciferase) in vitro in lithium-treated tissue slices/cells. Lithium lengthens period of both the locomotor activity rhythms, as well as the molecular oscillations in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, lung tissues and fibroblast cells. In addition, we also identified significantly elevated PER2::LUC expression and oscillation amplitude in both central and peripheral pacemakers. Elevation of PER2::LUC by lithium was not associated with changes in protein stabilities of PER2, but instead with increased transcription of Per2 gene. Although lithium and GSK3 inhibition showed opposing effects on clock period, they acted in a similar fashion to up-regulate PER2 expression and oscillation amplitude. Collectively, our data have identified a novel amplitude-enhancing effect of lithium on the PER2 protein rhythms in the central and peripheral circadian clockwork, which may involve a GSK3-mediated signalling pathway. These findings may advance our understanding of the therapeutic actions of lithium in Bipolar Disorder or other psychiatric diseases that involve circadian rhythm disruptions.

Lithium lengthens period for behavioral rhythms and alters molecular oscillations in the suprachiasmatic nucleus

Click here to read the peer-reviewed research article in its entirety.