HOUSTON – Bipolar disorder causes shifts in a person’s mood, energy, activity levels, and concentration. These shifts can make it difficult to carry out day-to-day tasks.
A clinical trial at UT Health Houston is looking at whether stem cell therapy can battle treatment-resistant bipolar disorder.
“[Some] get on treatments and do well, but some don’t,” said Dr. Jair Soares, Professor and Chair for the Faillace Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UTHealth Houston.
For the people with treatment-resistant bipolar who can’t find relief, Dr. Soares said it’s worth experimenting with stem cells to see about improving inflammation and connectivity in the brain.
“They do release systemic factors that seem to lessen inflammation, you know, in the entire body, but in this case, affecting the brain... inflammation in the brain that a major mental illness like bipolar disorder seems to over time appears,” Dr. Soares said. “So, we believe that that’s how [stem cells] could help, but this is a proof-of-concept study so we don’t really know if it will do what we are proposing.”
Right now, it might be a shot in the dark, but what if they hit the bullseye?
“The treatments we have now, they are good at controlling the symptoms, but we don’t have anything that will cure the disease,” Soares said.
The FDA does not advise getting stem cells at just any place or using any type of stem cells. In some cases, people claim they’ve experienced further harm by doing that.
UT Health Houston said their trial is safe and FDA-approved. Half of the patients in the trial will receive stem cells, the other half will get a placebo.