Personalized treatment for bipolar disorder is now an international effort

Dr. Martin Alda

Bipolar disorder knows no borders and now personalized treatment for the disease is following suit. Dr. Martin Alda, Director of the Mood Disorders Program at NSHA & Killam Chair at Dalhousie University, has teamed up with colleagues in Montreal, Paris, Wurzburg and Cagliari on a project granted 834,000Euros (appx $1.25M CDN) in funding from the ERA PerMed Cofund.

The PLOT-BD project aims to shorten the time to remission by studying genetic markers in patients and tailoring treatment on an individual basis. To date, treatments are chosen by trial-and-error taking months or years to become effective. This new approach being studied in Canada, France, Germany and Italy, will look to derive a set of variables associated with treatment outcome and lead to faster recovery.

The proposed solution means shorter times to remission.

The ERAPerMed Cofund has 32 partners from 23 countries and was cofounded by the European Commission in 2018. The PLOT-BD project was announced as one of the first projects to be funded and had to demonstrate the value of interdisciplinary study and transnational collaboration.