Advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging research on bipolar disorder and self-stigma

Abstract

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic, recurrent, and severe mental illness. Individuals with BD often internalize prejudices and stereotypes directed toward them, leading to the development of self-stigma (SS). SS can further exacerbate impairments in cognitive and social functioning and contribute to decreased treatment adherence and poor prognosis. Functional magnetic resonance imaging provides a powerful tool for investigating the neuropathophysiological mechanisms underlying BD and SS, facilitating the early identification of SS in BD patients. A review of studies examining functional connectivity and neurometabolism across various brain regions in BD and SS patients suggests that both conditions can alter the functional connectivity of brain regions involved in emotional regulation, such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and amygdala. In addition, BD patients show reduced N-acetylaspartate levels in the PFC and anterior cingulate cortex. However, current research has yet to yield conclusive findings regarding the neurometabolites associated with SS. This paper proposes potential research directions for investigating SS in BD patients and lays the groundwork for the early detection of SS, ultimately contributing to a deeper clinical understanding of SS in this patient population.

Keywords

Bipolar disorder / Self-stigma / Functional magnetic resonance imaging / Blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging / Magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Acknowledgments

None.

Funding

Natural Science Foundation of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (2022D01C606); Tianshan Innovative Team Program (2022D14011).

Conflict of interest

Shaohong Zou is an Editorial Board Member of this journal and Guest Editor of this special issue but was not in any way involved in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. Separately, other authors declared that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.

Author contributions

Conceptualization: Longyuan Zhang, Shaohong Zou, Xiaoxiao Tang

Writing - original draft: Longyuan Zhang, Yingshuai Li, Xiaoxiao Tang

Writing - review & editing: Chengji Wang, Shaohong Zou, Longyuan Zhang

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data

A literature search for this review was conducted using the topic words “bipolar disorder” and “self-stigma” in the PubMed and Embase databases. The search was limited to studies published within the past 10 years.

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