Effects of Early Intervention on the Course of Bipolar Disorder: Theories and Realities

Given the severity and early onset of pediatric bipolar disorder, early intervention is important to bring about recovery and alter the course of the illness. There is a new and burgeoning body of literature on the biological basis of early signs of the illness and the mechanistic understanding of treatment interventions. Biological findings based on multimodal imaging, genomic studies of cellular proteins, and performance-based findings of neurocognitive studies are beginning to assemble a cohesive and interlinked model of systems neuroscience. This offers the promise of identifying biomarkers, predictors of illness, and treatment outcomes. In complement, at the tier of clinical application is a multitude of efficacy trials, yet neither a single medication nor a combination of choices seems to suffice in reality. The current review develops a point of view bridging scientific developments to where comprehensive, multipronged treatment strategies find their clinical application-a model that is similarly applicable in adult bipolar disorder.