About this Research Topic
Mood disorders are a group of mental illnesses that affect many people and disrupt their quality of life worldwide. Despite the vast impact of mood disorders, a large number of patients do not respond to treatment. Limited efficacy and scarcity of novel pharmacological interventions in mood disorders are at the core of the issue. It is therefore important to improve our understanding of the mechanisms of disease in mood disorders. This is complicated by the heterogeneity of clinical phenotypes associated with mood disorders, which often overlap with each other and with other disorders. New research focused on improving our understanding of the biology of mood disorders and their relationship with other mental health conditions is essential to aid the development of novel and more precise targets for pharmacological action.
The goal of this Research Topic is to collect studies on new methods to improve detection and promote clinical differentiation within mood disorders, as essential steps to improve our understanding of their underlying mechanisms. We welcome studies involving new technologies exploring mechanistic architectures of disease at brain level and new theoretical and animal models applied to brain circuitry involved in mood regulation.
Finally, since mood disorders are characterized by a substantial overlap of behavioral features, brain abnormalities, and genetic expression that makes their differentiation challenging, we aim at exploring studies on more discriminative techniques and new disease models. This approach could bring new opportunities to increase precision in the identification of mood disorders and support the development of more specific targets for novel treatments.
We particularly encourage original research and review articles on the following subtopics:
• Studies exploring mechanisms underlying disease onset, progression, partial response, relapse and treatment refractoriness;
• Studies evaluating approaches to aid differentiation within mood disorders and between mood disorders and other mental health conditions by using a range of techniques, from brain imaging to immunology, genetic research, peripheral markers, endocrine research, etc. New technologies would be of particular interest;
• Studies investigating interventions to treat mood disorders including specific syndromes such as cognitive dysfunction. Novel pharmacological compounds and psychological techniques are of particular interest.
The goal of this Research Topic is to collect studies on new methods to improve detection and promote clinical differentiation within mood disorders, as essential steps to improve our understanding of their underlying mechanisms. We welcome studies involving new technologies exploring mechanistic architectures of disease at brain level and new theoretical and animal models applied to brain circuitry involved in mood regulation.
Finally, since mood disorders are characterized by a substantial overlap of behavioral features, brain abnormalities, and genetic expression that makes their differentiation challenging, we aim at exploring studies on more discriminative techniques and new disease models. This approach could bring new opportunities to increase precision in the identification of mood disorders and support the development of more specific targets for novel treatments.
We particularly encourage original research and review articles on the following subtopics:
• Studies exploring mechanisms underlying disease onset, progression, partial response, relapse and treatment refractoriness;
• Studies evaluating approaches to aid differentiation within mood disorders and between mood disorders and other mental health conditions by using a range of techniques, from brain imaging to immunology, genetic research, peripheral markers, endocrine research, etc. New technologies would be of particular interest;
• Studies investigating interventions to treat mood disorders including specific syndromes such as cognitive dysfunction. Novel pharmacological compounds and psychological techniques are of particular interest.
Keywords: mood disorders, treatment, depression, clinical differentiation
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
