REVIEW article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Mood Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1552992
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Role of Affect Regulation in Bipolar DisordersView all 5 articles
Underlying biological mechanisms of emotion dysregulation in Bipolar Disorder
Provisionally accepted
Buse Beril Durdurak1*
Isabel Morales Muñoz1
Angharad N de Cates1,2,3Chantelle E Wiseman1
Matthew R Broome1,4
Steven Marwaha1,5- 1University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
- 2University of Oxford, Oxford, England, United Kingdom
- 3Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, Coventry, United Kingdom
- 4Birmingham Women's NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, United Kingdom
- 5Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, United Kingdom
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Difficulties with emotion regulation (ER) are a key feature of Bipolar Disorder (BD) contributing to poor psychosocial and functional outcomes. Abnormalities within emotion processing and regulation thus provide key targets for treatment strategies and have implications for treatment response. Although biological mechanisms and ER are typically studied independently, emergent findings in BD research suggest that there are important ties between biological mechanisms and the disturbances in ER observed in BD. Therefore, in this narrative review, we provide an overview of the literature on biological mechanisms underlying emotional dysregulation in BD including genetic and epigenetic mechanisms, neuroimaging findings, inflammation, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction, neuroplasticity and brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and circadian rhythm disturbances. Finally, we discuss the clinical relevance of the findings and provide future directions for research. The continued exploration of underlying biological mechanisms in ED in BD may not only elucidate fundamental neurobiological mechanisms but also foster advancements in current treatment strategies and the development of novel targeted treatments.
Keywords: Bipolar Disorder, Emotion Regulation, biological, mechanisms, Underlying
Received: 29 Dec 2024; Accepted: 28 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Durdurak, Morales Muñoz, de Cates, Wiseman, Broome and Marwaha. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Buse Beril Durdurak, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
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