Researchers suggest P85 may represent new biological marker for bipolar disorder.

MedWire (8/27, Davenport) reports that, according to a study published online Aug. 10 in the journal Bipolar Disorders, “the gating ratio of auditory brain potentials at 85 ms (P85) may help clinicians differentiate between bipolar disorder patients and healthy individuals.” For the study, researchers from the University of California-Irvine “measured…P85 auditory evoked potentials in 45 patients with schizoaffective disorder, 66 patients with paranoid schizophrenia, 42 bipolar I disorder patients, and 56 healthy controls.” The team found “significant differences in the average P85 gating ratio between the groups, at 124.8 for bipolar I disorder patients, 96.0 for schizoaffective disorder patients, 84.7 for patients with paranoid schizophrenia, and 70.5 for healthy controls.” The authors suggested that “the previously unstudied P85 component may represent a new biological marker for bipolar disorder.”

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