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Lithium response and [minus sign]116C/G polymorphism of XBP1 in Japanese patients with bipolar disorder.

Kakiuchi C, Kato T

Laboratory for Molecular Dynamics of Mental Disorders, Brain Science Institute, RIKEN, Wako-shi, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.

three mood stabilizers, lithium, valproate and carbamazepine, are known to be effective for a subset of patients with bipolar disorder, but the mechanism(s) of action for these three drugs is controversial (gray et al., 2003). the response to treatment varies among individuals, but to date, no biological marker for predicting treatment response has been identified (ikeda and kato, 2003). several groups have been pursuing a genetic marker that can be used to predict treatment response to lithium. several polymorphisms of the genes such as serotonin transporter (del zompo et al., 1999; serretti et al. 2001), tryptophan hydroxylase (serretti et al., 1999) and inositol polyphosphate 1-phosphatase (steen et al., 1998), have been suggested to relate to the lithium response, but these findings are still controversial. thus, clinicians select mood stabilizers only empirically.

Published 5 October 2005 in Int J Neuropsychopharmacol, 8(4): 631-2.
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