Infliximab Helps the Subgroup of Bipolar Depressed Patients Who Faced Adversity in Childhood

October 11, 2019 · Posted in Potential Treatments · Comment 

child with bruised face

At the 2019 meeting of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders, researcher Mike Cosgrove and colleagues described a study of the immune-suppressing drug infliximab in adults with bipolar disorder. The researchers found persistent significant improvements on infliximab only in those with bipolar disorder who also had a history of childhood adversity. Childhood adversity is consistently associated with elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines, and baseline inflammation may be a prerequisite for a positive effect from infliximab, which works by blocking the inflammatory cytokine TNF alpha.