Neuroprogression and Staging in Bipolar Disorder

Flávio Kapczinski is Professor of Psychiatry, Director of Research and Head of the Molecular Psychiatry Laboratory at the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Brazil. He is Consultant for the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). He has wide experience in clinical research, being lead investigator in several clinical trials, some funded by the Stanley Medical Research Institute and Brain & Behavioral Foundation. His work identified biological underpinnings of the decline in cognition and physical health among patients with bipolar disorder. He has published over 302 peer-reviewed papers and has 4700 citations with an H-index of 35. Recently his research has focused on neurotoxicity mechanisms linked to mood episodes and the use of a systemic toxicity index, supporting the notion that bipolar disorder is a systemic illness, approximating psychiatry to other fields of medicine. He currently coordinates the Brazilian National Institute of Translational Medicine. Eduard Vieta is Professor of Psychiatry, Head of Department and Director of the Bipolar Disorders Program of the Hospital Clinic at the University of Barcelona, Spain. He is Director of the Bipolar Research Program at the Spanish Research Network on Mental Diseases (CIBERSAM) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. His research focuses on the neurobiology, epidemiology and treatment of bipolar disorder. He received the 2007 Aristotle Award, the 2005 Mogens Schou Award and the 2012 Colvin Prize on Outstanding Achievement in Mood Disorders Research by the Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation. Having made significant contributions to many published bipolar disorder treatment guidelines he has authored over 500 articles, 200 chapters and 27 books. His H index is 70 with over 18000 citations. He is on editorial boards of many international scientific journals. He has served as Invited Professor at Harvard University and Neuroscience Scientific Advisor to the European Presidency. Pedro V. S. Magalhães is Professor of Psychiatry at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. He also holds the posts of Associate Editor at RBP Psychiatry and Field Editor for Literature Reviews at Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. The main lines of research he has developed and continues in recent years is the translational medicine and epidemiology of mood disorders and the development of novel treatment approaches to these disorders, including medications that oxidative stress and inflammation pathways. Michael Berk is Professor and Alfred Deakin Chair of Psychiatry at Deakin University and Honorary Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health and Orygen Youth Health at Melbourne University. He has published over 450 papers on mood disorders, his greatest contribution being the discovery and implementation of novel therapies. He has published 25 self-initiated randomised controlled trials, pioneering randomised placebo controlled trials of N-acetyl cysteine in depression and bipolar disorder maintenance treatment, establishing an entirely new treatment and implicating a novel mechanism of disease. He was founding editor of the Journal of Depression and Anxiety and has been involved with 12 other journals. He holds grants from the National Institutes of Health (US), Simon Autism Foundation, NHMRC CRE and Stanley Medical Research Institute and is lead investigator on a successful Collaborative Research Centre application.