Bipolar disorder (BPD) is a highly heritable mood disorder characterized in many patients by dramatic and unpredictable mood swings between depression and mania or hypomania. Nearly 50% of bipolar patients attempt suicide and half of them succeed [1]. Available therapeutic agents effectively treat symptoms in only a subset of patients, accounting for the high morbidity and mortality associated with BPD [2,3]. Recent research efforts have focused on identifying the underlying genes and genetic factors for BPD with the goal of using these molecular genetic insights to design therapeutics with greater efficacy [4,5].
