Molecular Mechanisms of Mood Stabilizers

Dear Colleagues,

Mood disorders are common chronic psychiatric conditions with a high socio-economic burden, as they affect mainly young adults and present with recurrent episodes of depression or mania. Mood stabilizers encompass a heterogeneous class of drugs, including anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, and lithium, that are used to treat these psychiatric conditions. However, the efficacy of mood stabilizers differs significantly depending on age at onset, disease duration, gender, and comorbidities. The available treatment is effective in about 60% of chronically treated patients, the remaining 40% requires a switch to another drug or a combination of several normotymic agents. Despite several decades of clinical use and numerous molecular studies conducted to elucidate the molecular mechanism of mood stabilizers, the exact mechanisms are not fully identified. The discovery of molecular pathways influenced by mood stabilizers could improve the treatment response prediction as well as the identification of novel therapeutic targets for mood disorders.

In this Special Issue, we welcome your contributions, original papers, or review articles, on molecular aspects of mood stabilizer action with a particular focus on delineating the changes in gene expression regulation (including epigenome, noncoding RNAs, transcriptome, and proteome), using in vitro studies, animal models, and clinical studies, as well as works investigating the role of comorbidities on molecular action of mood stabilizers. Pure clinical studies will not be considered in this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Aleksandra Szczepankiewicz
Guest Editor

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