MRI features of clinical outcome in bipolar disorder: A selected review

In summary, WM hyperintensities and fronto-temporo-limbic GM alterations may be potential indices of worse outcome in BD patients, particularly in terms of illness severity and progression. The identification of stable markers of prognosis can help the clinicians in selecting subgroups of bipolar patients who need specific treatment to preserve cognitive / psychosocial functioning, in the light of personalized approaches. To further characterize outcome in BD, future sMRI studies should a) longitudinally investigate patients with either poor or good course of the disease, and b) correlate neuroimaging measures with clinical, cognitive and genetic markers.