Principal Investigator: Austin
A pilot study undertaken earlier at the BDI examined 100 high and low anxiety mothers in pregnancy and demonstrated that the infants of the high anxiety mothers had a suppressed cortisol response to a stressor at 6 months. The infants are now being followed up to age 3 and further studies are planned.
Principal Investigator: Brodaty/Sachdev
The Sydney Stroke Study is a longitudinal study of 200 stroke patients
and 100 control subjects that have been followed up since 1997. Psychiatric
assessments were performed at 3 months, 1 year and 3 years after stroke, and
the subjects have been assessed with MRI scans and detailed neuropsychological
evaluation. Incident depression after stroke is being examined in relation
to posited risk factors. The MRI and MRS correlates and predictors are
also being examined. Other emotional states being examined are apathy
and agitation. This study has been continuously funded by NHMRC for 6
years.
Principal Investigator: Green
This project examines the genetic basis of cognitive deficits in bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia, on the basis of convergent evidence for common susceptibility genes and neuropsychological deficits in these conditions.
Principal Investigator: Green
This project examines how neuropsychological and social cognitive deficits differentially impact the capacity to utilise common strategies to regulate emotions, and the neural mechanisms of impaired emotion regulation in bipolar and major depressive disorders.
Principal Investigator: Mitchell
Bipolar Disorder has high heritability (70-80%), being transmitted
as a complex trait (i.e. the interaction of a limited number of genes of small
effect and the environment). Recent advances in human genetics (e.g. those arising from the Human Genome project), combined with the availability
of family samples, provide the opportunity to use a positional cloning approach
to identify susceptibility genes for Bipolar Disorder.
We have recruited an internationally competitive Bipolar Disorder pedigree resource that includes a large number of multigenerational pedigrees which underpin our genetic linkage studies. Thus our goals are: to enlarge our pedigree cohort in both mainland Australia and Tasmania; completing 10cM genome screens on our entire pedigree cohort; positionally cloning the susceptibility gene from the high-candidate chromosome 4q35 locus and other loci as these are identified; and examining the use of binocular rivalry - a hereditable, potential trait marker for Bipolar Disorder - as a possible endophenotype in the linkage analyses.
Principal Investigator: Mitchell
We have previously demonstrated that the phenomenology and biology
of bipolar and unipolar depression differ. We will analyse two large
drug trial databases of bipolar and unipolar depressed patients, as well as
investigating depression phenomenology in unipolar relatives of bipolar probands
- in samples obtained from both our clinics and a clinical panel study.
Page last updated: 13-Oct-2008
Depression and Bipolar Disorder Information Australia - Black Dog Institute.
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