Biomarker & Intervention Discovery
Bipolar Disorder
Pharmacologically actionable gene targets, therapeutic agents ranked by evidence tier, and active clinical trials.
US DALYs474.9KWHO GHE 2021 · all ages
Global DALYs8.07MWHO GHE 2021 · worldwide
US mortality178 deaths/yrWHO GHE 2021
Global mortality1,118 deaths/yrWHO GHE 2021 · worldwide
NIH funding$72MFY2025 · RCDC estimate
Funding levelUnderfunded
Spontaneous remissionNatural episodic pattern: untreated, median episode length 3-6 months; recurrence in 90% within 5 years; functional…
Best-intervention remissionLithium reduces recurrence risk by 30-40% and suicide risk by 60-70% (unique anti-suicidal effect not shared by other…
Gap sizeModerate — lithium underuse is a genuine gap; psychotherapy chronically under-integrated with pharmacotherapy
Primary barrierpractice/framing
Full remission profile →
Remission & chronicity
Spontaneous remission
Natural episodic pattern: untreated, median episode length 3-6 months; recurrence in 90% within 5 years; functional impairment between episodes in 30-60%; suicide risk 20-30x general population
Best-intervention remission
Lithium reduces recurrence risk by 30-40% and suicide risk by 60-70% (unique anti-suicidal effect not shared by other mood stabilisers); combination pharmacotherapy + structured psychotherapy (IPSRT, CBT): 60-70% euthymia maintenance at 2 years in first-episode BD
Gap size
Moderate — lithium underuse is a genuine gap; psychotherapy chronically under-integrated with pharmacotherapy
Primary barrier
practice/framing
Lithium is the most evidence-based mood stabiliser with the only demonstrated anti-suicidal effect but is declining in use relative to newer anticonvulsants and antipsychotics partly due to monitoring requirements; many clinicians avoid lithium due to perceived complexity despite its superior evidence base
Biomarker Targets & Therapeutic Agents
Gene targets queried against DGIdb, Open Targets, ChEMBL, PubMed, and Europe PMC.
Agents ranked: ● Clinical >
● Mechanistic >
● Correlative.
Pipeline results not yet available. Run: python -m biomarker_pipeline.run_for_diseases --skip-llm
Clinical Trials
Recruiting and recently completed trials from ClinicalTrials.gov.
Data retrieved 2026-07-06.
No recent clinical trials found on ClinicalTrials.gov for this condition.
Agents Found By Disease-Level Search
Searched directly from “Bipolar Disorder” via ClinicalTrials.gov interventions and Open Targets'
disease→drug data — independent of the 0-gene target panel above.
This surfaces agents whose mechanism doesn't route through a curated gene (combination
therapies, standard-of-care drugs, targets outside the panel).
Not yet run. python -m biomarker_pipeline.run_disease_agent_discovery --disease "..."