| Description: |
Mood disorders (Bipolar Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder) are common, chronic, recurrent mental illnesses that affect the lives of millions of individuals worldwide. Even with adequate modern pharmacological therapies, a disproportionate number of afflicted individuals continue to have persistent mood episode relapses, residual symptoms, functional impairment, psychosocial disability, and suicidal behavior, with tragic concomitant increases in morbidity and mortality. Although novel therapeutics that are mechanistically distinct and work more quickly and effectively are desperately needed for individuals with mood disorders, the discovery and development of such therapeutics has unfortunately reached a plateau. This lecture will summarize some of the promising Intramural efforts currently being developed, as well as explore some exciting future directions in the discovery and development of novel therapeutics to address this urgent, unmet need. Notably, such proof-of-concept studies also incorporate new, cutting-edge research technologies to analyze and measure affective, cognitive, and behavioral components of mood disorders in relationship to potential biomarkers of response. |