Bipolar Disorders Network

History

The Bipolar Disorders Network emerged from the need to address fragmentation in bipolar disorder research within the EU. In response, the ECNP-ENBREC consortium was established to connect expert centres in Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, the UK, France, Denmark, and the Netherlands, representing over 300 million EU citizens. This initiative aims to strengthen research capacity, improve diagnostic procedures, and enhance treatment strategies for BD across Europe, with plans to expand to additional EU member states.

Through the activities of our Network, we obtained a grant from the EU for a large multisite trial of lithium, involving predictors of effect and neurobiological markers. We contributed to establish a unique community focused on bipolar disorders, and our members have made essential contributions to several recent publications based on multisite data. We have made important discoveries of key disease related features, including brain mechanisms, causative factors and gene variants associated with treatment effects.

Mirko Manchia, Italy, and Eva Reininghaus, Austria.

Mirko Manchia

University of Cagliari
Italy

Chair

Eva Reininghaus

Medical University of Graz
Austria

Co-chair

Core members

Member name	Institution	City	Country
Ole Andreassen	Oslo University Hospital	Oslo	Norway
Michael Bauer	Technische Universität Dresden	Dresden	Germany
Frank Bellivier	INSERM	Paris	France
Veerle Bergink	Erasmus University Medical Center	Rotterdam	The Netherlands
Deniz Ceylan	Koc University	Istanbul	Türkiye
Ana Gonzalez-Pinto	Hospital Santiago Apostol	Vitoria	Spain
Tomas Hajek	Dalhousie University	Halifax	Canada
Lars Vedel Kessing	Psychiatric Center Copenhagen	Copenhagen	Denmark
Mikael Landen	University of Gothenburg	Gothenburg	Sweden
René Ernst Nielsen	Aalborg University Hospital	Aalborg	Denmark
Andreas Reif	University Hospital Frankfurt	Frankfurt	Germany
Philipp Ritter	Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital	Dresden	Germany
Gonzalo Salazar de Pablo	King's College London	London	United Kingdom
Thomas Schulze	Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich	Munich	Germany
Jan Scott	University of Newcastle	Newcastle	United Kingdom
Alessio Squassina	University of Cagliari	Cagliari	Italy
Eduard Vieta	Fundació Clínic for the Biomedical Research	Barcelona	Spain
Nefize Yalin	National Institute for Mental Health	Maryland	USA
Aysegul Yildiz	Dokuz Eylül University	Izmir	Türkiye

Shell members

Member name	Institution	City	Country
Andreas Bechdolf	Vivantes Klinikum am Urban	Berlin	Germany
Hilary Blumberg	Yale School of Medicine	New Haven	USA
Bruno Etain	University of Paris	Paris	France
Andrea Fagiolini	University of Siena	Siena	Italy
John Geddes	University of Oxford	Oxford	United Kingdom
Guy Goodwin	University of Oxford	Oxford	United Kingdom
Chantal Henry	Hospital Albert Chenevier	Creteil	France
Ralph Kupka	VU University Medical Center Amsterdam	Amsterdam	The Netherlands
Trine Vik Lagerberg	Oslo University Hospital	Oslo	Norway
Rasmus Licht	Aalborg University Hospital	Aalborg	Denmark
Monica Martinez-Cengotitabengoa	Hospital Universitario Araba-Santiago	Madrid	Spain
Gunnar Morken	St. Olav's University Hospital Norwegian University of science and Technology	Trondheim	Norway
Marcella Rietschel	Heidelberg University	Mannheim	Germany
Emanuel Severus	Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital	Dresden	Germany
Maj Vinberg	University of Copenhagen	Copenhagen	Denmark

Early Career Academy member

Member name	Institution	City	Country
Hanne Lie Kjaerstad	Psychiatric Center Copenhagen	Frederiksberg	Denmark
Luisa Klahn	University of Gothenburg	Gothenburg	Sweden

Meetings

Knowledge Hub

Research

Awards

Early Career

News

About

Bipolar Disorders Network

History

Publications

Genome-wide association study identifies 30 loci associated with bipolar disorder.

Analysis of shared heritability in common disorders of the brain.

Cortical abnormalities in bipolar disorder: an MRI analysis of 6503 individuals from the ENIGMA Bipolar Disorder Working Group.