UC Davis

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Bipolar disorder is highly familial and has a protracted and diagnostically confusing prodrome. This review critically evaluates recently published literature relevant to the treatment of psychiatric symptoms in high-risk offspring of parents with Bipolar Disorder. RECENT FINDINGS: Non-pharmacological treatment options including psychotherapy, resilience promotion through good sleep, diet, and exercise hygiene, and omega-3 fatty acid supplementation are important first line interventions for high-risk offspring. There has been some success in treating this population with open-label trials with mood stabilizers and atypical antipsychotics; however, these results have not been replicated in randomized controlled trails. SUMMARY: Despite some progress in early identification of symptoms in offspring of parents with Bipolar Disorder, there is scarce evidence supporting the treatment of these high-risk youth to prevent psychiatric symptoms from progressing to threshold bipolar or other psychiatric disorders. There is a need for prospective and randomized trials and research that identifies reliable biomarkers to individualize treatments for these youth.