The International Consortium on Lithium Genetics (ConLiGen): An Initiative by the NIMH and IGSLI to Study the Genetic Basis of Response to Lithium Treatment
Open Access
- 8 May 2010
- journal article
- Published by S. Karger AG in Neuropsychobiology
- Vol. 62 (1), 72-78
- https://doi.org/10.1159/000314708
Abstract
For more than half a decade, lithium has been successfully used to treat bipolar disorder. Worldwide, it is considered the first-line mood stabilizer. Apart from its proven antimanic and prophylactic effects, considerable evidence also suggests an antisuicidal effect in affective disorders. Lithium is also effectively used to augment antidepressant drugs in the treatment of refractory major depressive episodes and prevent relapses in recurrent unipolar depression. In contrast to many psychiatric drugs, lithium has outlasted various pharmacotherapeutic ‘fashions’, and remains an indispensable element in contemporary psychopharmacology. Nevertheless, data from pharmacogenetic studies of lithium are comparatively sparse, and these studies are generally characterized by small sample sizes and varying definitions of response. Here, we present an international effort to elucidate the genetic underpinnings of lithium response in bipolar disorder. Following an initiative by the International Group for the Study of Lithium-Treated Patients (www.IGSLI.org) and the Unit on the Genetic Basis of Mood and Anxiety Disorders at the National Institute of Mental Health,lithium researchers from around the world have formed the Consortium on Lithium Genetics (www.ConLiGen.org) to establish the largest sample to date for genome-wide studies of lithium response in bipolar disorder, currently comprising more than 1,200 patients characterized for response to lithium treatment. A stringent phenotype definition of response is one of the hallmarks of this collaboration. ConLiGen invites all lithium researchers to join its efforts.Keywords
This publication has 29 references indexed in Scilit:
- A Genomewide Association Study of Response to Lithium for Prevention of Recurrence in Bipolar DisorderAmerican Journal of Psychiatry, 2009
- Genetic predictors of response to antidepressants in the GENDEP projectThe Pharmacogenomics Journal, 2009
- A systematic method for estimating individual responses to treatment with antipsychotics in CATIESchizophrenia Research, 2009
- Pharmacogenetics of antipsychotic response in the CATIE trial: a candidate gene analysisEuropean Journal of Human Genetics, 2009
- The FKBP5-Gene in Depression and Treatment Response—an Association Study in the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) CohortBiological Psychiatry, 2008
- Rapid cycling bipolar disorders in primary and tertiary care treated patientsBipolar Disorders, 2008
- Pharmacogenetic Analysis of Genes Implicated in Rodent Models of Antidepressant Response: Association of TREK1 and Treatment Resistance in the STAR*D StudyNeuropsychopharmacology, 2008
- Genetic Power Calculator: design of linkage and association genetic mapping studies of complex traitsBioinformatics, 2003
- Is Response to Prophylactic Lithium a Familial Trait?British Journal of Psychology, 2002
- Pharmacogenetics of Tardive Dyskinesia Combined Analysis of 780 Patients Supports Association with Dopamine D3 Receptor Gene Ser9Gly PolymorphismNeuropsychopharmacology, 2002