Psychotropic medications and their interactions with subcortical brain volume in bipolar disorder: An ENIGMA mega-analysis

S King; J O’Connor; E Corley; G Tronchin; E Fontana; L Nabulsi; MJY Kang; J Radua; B Hallahan; C Abé; M Alda; D Alnæs; S Alonso-Lana; S Amoretti; J Bauer; F Benedetti; K Berger; M Berk; E Bøen; J Böhnlein; B Boye; B Bravi; EJ Canales-Rodríguez; U Dannlowski; C Demro; A Di Giorgio; AM Diaz-Zuluaga; T Elvsåshagen; P Favre; T Erwin-Grabner; MF Forte; JM Fullerton; LS Furlong; SL Rossell; DC Glahn; BI Goldstein; IH Gotlib; R Goya-Maldonado; MJ Green; D Grotegerd; O Gruber; BCM Haarman; T Hahn; T Hajek; L Hater; M Hermesdorf; J Houenou; FM Howells; JA Karantonis; KG Kennedy; T Kircher; AL Klahn; M Konowski; B Krämer; E Lahud; R Kuplicki; M Landén; C López-Jaramillo; BJ MacIntosh; H Meinert; S Meinert; EMT Melloni; PB Mitchell; B Mwangi; I Nenadić; BJ Overs; N Parker; G Pearlson; E Pomarol-Clotet; JJ Prisciandaro; Y Quidé; G Roberts; A Rodrigue; E Rodríguez-Cano; L Rauer; MD Sacchet; R Salvador; F Sambataro; TD Satterthwaite; J Savitz; F Scheffler; N Schürmeyer; C Shen; K Sim; JC Soares; A Solanes; MG Soeiro-de-Souza; SR Sponheim; DJ Stein; F Stein; HS Temmingh; L Teutenberg; SI Thomopoulos; S Urosevic; TE Van Rheenen; E Vieta; LT Westlye; DH Wolf; MJ Wu; LN Yatham

Journal article

Psychotropic medications and their interactions with subcortical brain volume in bipolar disorder: An ENIGMA mega-analysis

S King, J O’Connor, E Corley, G Tronchin, E Fontana, L Nabulsi, MJY Kang, J Radua, B Hallahan, C Abé, M Alda, D Alnæs, S Alonso-Lana, S Amoretti, J Bauer, F Benedetti, K Berger, M Berk, E Bøen, J Böhnlein Show all

Molecular Psychiatry | Published : 2026

DOI: 10.1038/s41380-025-03432-z

Abstract

MRI studies in bipolar disorder (BD) have yielded inconsistent findings, partly due to the varied use of psychotropic medications. This study utilised a mega-analysis approach, accounting for concurrent medication status (syndrome-based and Neuroscience-based Nomenclature (NbN) classifications), in order to assess the association of medication status with subcortical brain volumes in BD. Data from 2,664 BD patients and 4,065 controls (CN) were pooled from 34 research groups as part of the ENIGMA Bipolar Disorder Working Group. Standardized ENIGMA protocols were used to measure subcortical brain volumes. Linear-mixed-effects regression evaluated the association between psychotropic medication..

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