WASHINGTON, Sept. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — BD²: Breakthrough Discoveries for Thriving with Bipolar Disorder today announced the first six institutions that will launch the groundbreaking BD² Integrated Network. Brigham and Women’s Hospital-McLean Hospital, University of California Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins University, Mayo Clinic, University of Michigan, and UTHealth Houston together comprise the first sites that will work in partnership with clinicians, researchers, and people living with bipolar disorder to expand knowledge of bipolar disorder while accelerating the translation of that knowledge into clinical care. The BD² Integrated Network integrates clinical, behavioral, and biological data to gain new insight into bipolar disorder and accelerate improved treatment. Over the next five years, it will engage 4,000 people living with bipolar disorder as part of a longitudinal cohort study.
“For too long, there have been limited breakthroughs in the study and treatment of bipolar disorder,” said Cara Altimus, PhD, managing director for BD² and senior director at the Milken Institute. “This is a landmark endeavor for bipolar disorder that will allow for a more complete understanding of the condition and a path toward precision care. We aim to generate impact on the field like the Framingham heart study has done for cardiovascular disease over the last 75 years.”
Each of these first six sites will work to improve the health and well-being of people living with bipolar disorder, engaging across the network of collaborating investigators and clinicians to:
- Build an unprecedented data ecosystem consisting of longitudinal clinical and biological data to inform and implement data-driven improvements in care
- Transform our understanding of the trajectory and heterogeneity of bipolar disorder and generate novel insights that will drive greater understanding of the neurobiology of the illness and facilitate innovative new treatment approaches
- Use best clinical practices, combined with the power of discovery to accelerate translation of research findings to care for patients
“The BD² Integrated Network is the first initiative in the field of psychiatry that embeds a longitudinal cohort study within a learning health network,” said Katherine Burdick, PhD, Vice Chair for Research, Department of Psychiatry Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and BD² Integrated Network scientific director. “This is a unique opportunity to discover the behavioral and biological drivers of disease in patients with bipolar disorder and, for the first time, we will have comprehensive research data collected at scale within a clinical care setting, which allows research findings to be more quickly translated into improved care for patients.”
More than 70% of people with bipolar disorder are misdiagnosed at least once. It takes seven years on average to diagnose bipolar disorder – and less than 50% of those who are diagnosed find an effective treatment. Despite affecting 3% of the global population, and costing an estimated $200 billion annually in health and economic burden in the United States alone, bipolar disorder is often tacked onto studies of other psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia, which receive far greater attention and funding.
“Current understanding of the mechanisms of bipolar disorder are inadequate to meet the needs of individuals living with bipolar disorder today,” said Mark Frye, MD, BD² Integrated Network scientific director. “The data, collaboration, and clinical care provided by the Integrated Network will generate new knowledge and reinvest it into improved care. Our goal is to achieve a paradigm shift in our overall understanding of the condition, accelerating the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder worldwide.”
In its first year, BD² dedicated more than $60 million in funding to research that accelerates scientific understanding of bipolar disorder and advances clinical care through cross-disciplinary collaboration, data sharing, and real-time learning. BD² recently announced the recipients of $18 million in grants to examine the fundamental mechanisms of bipolar disorder as part of its Discovery Research program, along with the opening of a second round of funding for the same program.
Learn more about the Integrated Network at bipolardiscoveries.org/our-
About BD²: Breakthrough Discoveries for thriving with Bipolar Disorder is the first organization focused on funding and advancing research and care for bipolar disorder on a global scale. Our collaborative, open-science approach is designed to transform and shorten the time it takes for scientific breakthroughs to make a meaningful difference in the lives of the tens of millions of people with bipolar disorder. For more information, please visit bipolardiscoveries.org.
