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Developing a Rat Model for Bipolar Disorder
Published on: May 2, 2025
Reviewing medications for bipolar disorder: understanding the mechanisms of action
1Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
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.
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