BDRN research presented at the International Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health Conference

BDRN members were delighted to attend and present at the International Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health Conference 2022 held in London (and virtually) and co-chaired by BDRN’s Professor Ian Jones. Attending the conference was a wonderful opportunity to both learn more about perinatal mental health research from so many countries around the world and Read More …

PhD Success for Emma

We are delighted that Emma Tickle has successfully completed her PhD at the University of Worcester.  Emma’s PhD explored the relationship between borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder and a number of BDRN participants kindly contributed to Emma’s research. Emma is now working at the University of Worcester as an associate lecturer and will be writing Read More …

BDRN PhD students present work at University of Worcester Postgraduate Research Conference

Emma Tickle and Krista Easton presented their PhD findings at the University of Worcester Postgraduate Research Conference. Emma, who has recently submitted her thesis, presented her findings exploring the relationship between borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder. Krista discussed her initial analysis examining the prevalence of  autism spectrum conditions among individuals with bipolar disorder and outlined Read More …

BDRN present at National Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) Annual UK Research Conference

BDRN’s Dr Katherine Gordon-Smith was delighted to present our True Colours research at the National Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) Annual UK Research Conference hosted by the Welsh Value in Health Centre.  It was a fantastic conference to attend and gain an understanding of the latest developments in PROMs research across a wide range of disciplines Read More …

BDRN team present at the 24th Annual Conference of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD)

Members of the BDRN team were pleased to present at the 24th Annual Conference of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) 10th-12th June 2022.   Dr Katherine Gordon-Smith (University of Worcester), Dr Marisa Dias (Cardiff University) and Dr Kate Saunders (University of Oxford) all gave presentations during a symposium session titled Comorbid Borderline Personality Disorder and Traits in Read More …

New BDRN paper published: mental health prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic among individuals with bipolar disorder

Our research findings comparing mental health prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic among individuals with bipolar disorder have recently been published in the journal ‘Bipolar Disorders’. This is the first study carried out in the UK that has collected mood data both before and during the pandemic, thanks to all of the BDRN participants Read More …

BDRN participants contribute to study published in Nature Genetics

Thousands of BDRN research participants across the UK have contributed data to a study recently published in the journal ‘Nature Genetics’. This international research involving around 14,000 individuals with bipolar disorder and 14,000 controls identified rare variants in a gene called AKAP11 as a risk factor for bipolar disorder. These variants are rare, occurring in a minority Read More …

On World Bipolar Day 2022 BDRN Research Champion Julia Savage talks to us about her experiences of having bipolar disorder and her opinions of the importance of research into bipolar disorder

What were your early experiences of having bipolar disorder? My first experience of mental ill-health was at the age of 18 years, I had lost a 19 year-old friend in a traffic accident, causing me to suffer from sleep deprivation. I was unable to concentrate and behave in a rational way. I was admitted to Read More …

New BDRN study published: Relationships between sleep and mood in bipolar disorder

Our research findings examining the interplay between sleep and mood in individuals with bipolar disorder using intensive longitudinal data have recently been published in the journal Psychological Medicine. We examined relationships between sleep and mood among 649 BDRN participants who had provided weekly self-reports of insomnia, depression and (hypo)mania symptoms using the True Colours online monitoring tool Read More …