Francesc Colom

• Doctor of Psychology, MSc, PhD
• Managing Director at Consorci MAR Parc de Salut de Barcelona

The link between bipolar disorder (BP) and immune dysfunction remains controversial. While epidemiological studies have long suggested an association, recent research has found only limited evidence of such a relationship. To clarify this, we performed an exploratory study of the contributions of immune-relevant genetic factors to the response to l...

Lithium is the gold standard treatment for bipolar disorder (BD). However, its mechanism of action is incompletely understood, and prediction of treatment outcomes is limited. In our previous multi-omics study of the Pharmacogenomics of Bipolar Disorder (PGBD) sample combining transcriptomic and genomic data, we found that focal adhesion, the extra...

Background: Lithium (Li) remains the treatment of choice for bipolar disorders (BP). Its mood-stabilizing effects help reduce the long-term burden of mania, depression and suicide risk in patients with BP. It also has been shown to have beneficial effects on disease-associated conditions, including sleep and cardiovascular disorders. However, the i...

Lithium is the gold standard treatment for bipolar disorder (BD). However, its mechanism of action is incompletely understood, and prediction of treatment outcomes is limited. In our previous multi-omics study of the Pharmacogenomics of Bipolar Disorder (PGBD) sample combining transcriptomic and genomic data, we found that focal adhesion, the extra...

Introduction Suicide is a leading cause of preventable death in the world. Interventions that can quickly reach a large and geographically dispersed population are needed. Web-based programs are potentially cost-effective, allowing continuity of care. The iFightDepression-SURVIVE (iFD-Survive) is a web-based program designed as an add-on to iFightD...

The persistence of fetal cells in the mother (fetal microchimerism (FMc)) has been described in maternal tissues essential to the newborn. FMc is associated with several diseases that start or worsen in pregnancy or postpartum. This exploratory study reports—for the first time—the presence of FMc in the olfactory neuroepithelium (ON) of both health...

The link between bipolar disorder (BP) and immune dysfunction remains controversial. While epidemiological studies have long suggested an association, recent research has found only limited evidence of such a relationship. To clarify this, we investigated the contributions of immune-relevant genetic factors to the response to lithium (Li) treatment...

Objectives: Adjustment disorders (AjD) are common in clinical practice, but research on treatment alternatives is scarce, as it is on the impact of common comorbid symptoms such as pain. The present study explored the effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on a sample of AjD outpatients and analyzed the role of pain in treatment respo...

Background Despite the proliferation of new psychoactive substances (NPS) in recent years, there are many gaps in our understanding of the phenomena. Current methodologies still fail to provide timely and scientifically reliable knowledge between controlled trials and online data reports that lack analytical confirmation of the reported substances....

Background Response to lithium in patients with bipolar disorder is associated with clinical and transdiagnostic genetic factors. The predictive combination of these variables might help clinicians better predict which patients will respond to lithium treatment. Aims To use a combination of transdiagnostic genetic and clinical factors to predict l...

BackgroundSIMPLe is an internet‐delivered self‐management mobile app for bipolar disorder (BD) designed to combine technology with evidence-based interventions and facilitate access to psychoeducational content. The SIMPLe app was launched to the real world to make it available worldwide within the context of BD treatment. Objective The main aims o...

Objectives: Evidence suggests the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) to prevent depression relapse and decrease depressive symptoms during the acute phase. However, the effectiveness of MBCT in real-world heterogeneous samples treated in clinical health settings, including primary care, has received little attention. This study...

Lithium is the gold standard therapy for Bipolar Disorder (BD) but its effectiveness differs widely between individuals. The molecular mechanisms underlying treatment response heterogeneity are not well understood, and personalized treatment in BD remains elusive. Genetic analyses of the lithium treatment response phenotype may generate novel molec...

Response to lithium varies widely between individuals with bipolar disorder (BD). Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) can uncover pharmacogenomics effects and may help predict drug response. Patients ( N = 2,510) with BD were assessed for long-term lithium response in the Consortium on Lithium Genetics using the Retrospective Criteria of Long-Term Treatme...

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to increase suicidal behavior. However, data available to date are inconsistent. This study examines suicidal behavior and death trends in 2020 relative to 2019 as an approximation to the impact of the pandemic on suicidal behavior and death in the general population of Catalonia, Spain. Data on suicide-related tho...

Bipolar affective disorder (BD) is a severe psychiatric illness, for which lithium (Li) is the gold standard for acute and maintenance therapies. The therapeutic response to Li in BD is heterogeneous and reliable biomarkers allowing patients stratification are still needed. A GWAS performed by the International Consortium on Lithium Genetics (ConLi...

The emergence and spread of new technologies have allowed for the introduction of new forms of gambling. Problem online gambling has specific characteristics, and its prevalence may differ from traditional forms of gambling. This paper systematically reviews studies that include data relevant to problem online gambling and to the sociodemographic a...

BACKGROUND SIMPLe is an internet‐delivered self‐management mobile app for bipolar disorder (BD) designed to combine technology with evidence-based interventions and facilitate access to psychoeducational content. The SIMPLe app was launched to the real world to make it available worldwide within the context of BD treatment. OBJECTIVE The main aims...

Individuals who suffer from depressive symptoms experience a substantial impact on psychosocial functioning, physical health, mortality, and quality of life. In the search for therapeutic strategies, exercise has been found to play a relevant part in its treatment. However, the promotion of exercise entails adherence difficulties that arose out of...

Background: Bipolar Disorder (BD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) have clinically been evolving as separate disorders, though there is still debate on the nosological valence of both conditions, their interaction in terms of co-morbidity or disorder spectrum and their distinct pathophysiology. Objective: The objective of this review is to...

Lithium is a first-line medication for bipolar disorder (BD), but only one in three patients respond optimally to the drug. Since evidence shows a strong clinical and genetic overlap between depression and bipolar disorder, we investigated whether a polygenic susceptibility to major depression is associated with response to lithium treatment in pat...

The death of Hagop Akiskal left a great void in all who knew him, and many of us knew him, indeed, all over the world. Hagop was an attentive clinician and innovative researcher as well as a mentor who accompanied the growth of many young psychiatrists, a researcher sometimes controversial, never predictable, whose reflections have changed the way...

Introducción: La 3-metilmetcatinona (3-MMC) es una catinona sintética perteneciente al grupo de nuevas sustancias psicoactivas (NPS). Es un isómero estructural de la mefedrona, siendo una alternativa a la misma en contexto de chemsex (1). El estudio de las NPS está limitado por la velocidad en que aparecen y desaparecen del mercado estas sustancias...

Background Evidence mapping is a structured approach used to synthesize the state-of-the-art in an emerging field of research when systematic reviews or meta-analyses are deemed inappropriate. We employed this strategy to summarise knowledge regarding longitudinal ecological monitoring of rest-activity rhythms (RAR) and disease modifiers, course of...

Background Smartphone apps are becoming increasingly used by service users in mental health care and research for diverse aims. However, it is well-known the high prevalence of cognitive impairment in some people suffering from severe mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder (BD), which impacts on their psychosocial functioning and quality of life...

Background: The study explores the association between pain and functional impairment in patients with partially remitted MDD, considering both clinician and patient reported outcomes. Methods: Multicenter, observational, and cross-sectional study, with 583 outpatients with partially remitted MDD. Measures of pain intensity (VAS), functional impai...

Lithium is a first-line medication for bipolar disorder (BD), but only one in three patients respond optimally to the drug. Since evidence shows a strong clinical and genetic overlap between depression and bipolar disorder, we investigated whether a polygenic susceptibility to major depression is associated with response to lithium treatment in pat...

Background : Suicide prevention is an emerging priority for public health systems. Here, we present the Catalonia Suicide Risk Code (CSRC), a secondary suicide prevention program that provides a systematic approach to follow-up care for patients at risk. We describe the care pathway of the CSRC and characteristics of the patients enrolled in the pr...

Background : The efficacy of adjunctive group psychoeducation in bipolar disorder has been proven although treatment response differ among individuals. The aim of this study was to characterize responders and non-responders to group psychoeducation in order to identify baseline variables that could predict treatment response. Methods : The sample...

Background: Lithium is recommended as a first line treatment for bipolar disorders. However, only 30% of patients show an optimal outcome and variability in lithium response and tolerability is poorly understood. It remains difficult for clinicians to reliably predict which patients will benefit without recourse to a lengthy treatment trial. Great...

Objectives: The Retrospective Assessment of the Lithium Response Phenotype Scale (Alda scale) is the most widely used clinical measure of lithium response phenotypes. We assess its performance against recommended psychometric and clinimetric standards. Methods: We used data from the Consortium for Lithium Genetics and a French study of lithium r...

Background The efficacy of psychoeducation for bipolar disorder has been demonstrated in clinical trials, but it is not known if the results translate into effectiveness in routine clinical practice. The aim was to determine the effectiveness of psychoeducation for bipolar disorder in a routine clinical setting. Method We identified 2819 patients...

The main aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of functional remediation (FR) in serum brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in euthymic adult patients with Bipolar Disorder (BD). A total of 128 participants were recruited at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. They were assessed at baseline and at the end of follow-up by the means of...

Over recent decades, the field of psychiatry has allocated a vast amount of resources and efforts to make available more accurate and objective methods to diagnose, assess and monitor treatment outcomes in psychiatric disorders. Despite the optimism and some significant progress in biological markers, it has become increasingly evident that they ar...

Background: Patients with bipolar disorder (BD) differ in their relative predominance of types of episodes, yielding predominant polarity, which has important treatment implications. However, few prospective studies of predominant polarity exist. Methods: In the Jorvi Bipolar Study (JoBS), a regionally representative cohort of 191 BD I and BD II in...

Background: Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by mood disturbances. The pathophysiology of BD is still poorly precise. In the last years, the study involving the role of inflammation in BD. Objective: Performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluated the potential effect of the cyclo-oxygenases (Cox)-2 inhi...

Background: Few evidence-based mental health apps are widely available to patients and, conversely, many of the available apps have not been appropriately evaluated. Given that the ultimate goal is to scale-up and open internet-based platforms (IBP), it is crucial to appropriately evaluate their real-world feasibility beforehand. We aimed to evalu...

Background: Despite the potential importance of understanding violent criminal behavior (VCB) in individuals suffering from bipolar disorder (BD), previous findings are conflicting. The aims of the present study are to clarify the association of VCB and BD in comparison to general population and other psychiatric conditions. Methods: A systematic r...

The Satispsy-22 scale is an instrument created for the specific evaluation of psychiatric inpatient satisfaction. Therefore, the study aims to carry out the Satispsy-22 scientific translation to Spanish and to learn its psychometric properties. The Satipsy-22-E was administered to discharged patients from four units of acute psychiatric admission,...

Objectives Bipolar disorder (BD) with early disease onset is associated with an unfavorable clinical outcome and constitutes a clinically and biologically homogenous subgroup within the heterogeneous BD spectrum. Previous studies have found an accumulation of early age at onset (AAO) in BD families and have therefore hypothesized that there is a la...

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a common, highly heritable neuropsychiatric disease characterized by recurrent episodes of mania and depression. Lithium is the best-established long-term treatment for BD, even though individual response is highly variable. Evidence suggests that some of this variability has a genetic basis. This is supported by the larges...

Background Adjunctive psychological interventions as an add-on to pharmacological treatment in serious mental illnesses have shown to further improve long-term outcome, especially in the case of Bipolar Disorder and first episode psychosis. Among them, psychoeducational programs have a well-established evidence of efficacy and cost-efficiency. Howe...

The objective of the conference is to share the perception on the state of the issue on mHealth, from a more academic point of view than the usual business visions. The collaboration with the group of researchers and panels of experts, together with the work of synthesis of the advances in the application of mHealth in scientific journals, are the...

Importance Lithium is a first-line mood stabilizer for the treatment of bipolar affective disorder (BPAD). However, the efficacy of lithium varies widely, with a nonresponse rate of up to 30%. Biological response markers are lacking. Genetic factors are thought to mediate treatment response to lithium, and there is a previously reported genetic ove...

Importance Lithium is a first-line mood stabilizer for the maintenance treatment of Bipolar Disorder (BPD). However, the efficacy of lithium varies widely, with a non-response rate of up to 30%. Biological response markers and predictors are lacking. Objective Genetic factors are thought to mediate lithium treatment response, and the previously re...

Background: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapeutic approach that has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) through several randomized controlled trials (RCT). Solid evidence shows that traumatic events can contribute to the onset of severe mental disorders and can worsen...

Objective: Research on neurocognitive impairment in adult patients with comorbid bipolar disorder (BD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is very scarce. This study assessed the neurocognitive profile of a comorbid group (BD+ADHD) compared with that of pure BD (pBD) group, pure ADHD (pADHD) group and healthy controls (HCs). Metho...

Background Biological rhythms (BR) disturbance has been suggested as a potential mediator of mood episodes in Bipolar Disorder (BD). The Biological Rhythms Interview of Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (BRIAN) was designed as an assessment tool to evaluate BR domains comprehensively. In the context of a trial evaluating a smartphone application delive...

Lithium (Li) and valproate (VPA) are used in the treatment of bipolar disorder (BD), with narrow therapeutic window requiring periodic control of serum levels. This prevents intoxication, lack of efficacy due to low serum concentrations, and allows monitoring adherence. We aimed at evaluating the bioequivalence of salivary and blood levels of LI or...

We analyzed the efficacy of functional remediation, in a sample of patients with bipolar disorder who presented with subsyndromal symptoms. From a total sample of 239 patients with bipolar I and II disorder, according to DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria, entering a randomized clinical trial, those patients who presented with subsyndromal symptoms were...

FRAMEWORK This work is presented to the University of Barcelona in fulfillment of the requirements and procedures for the degree of Doctor in the format of article publication. Hereby, the published articles included in this thesis () are part of a line of research and a series of national and international congress presentations, posters and scie...

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a genetically complex mental illness characterized by severe oscillations of mood and behavior. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified several risk loci that together account for a small portion of the heritability. To identify additional risk loci, we performed a two-stage meta-analysis of >9 million geneti...

Functional improvement has become one of the aims of the treatment of bipolar disorder. However, scant attention has been given to family functioning, even though it has a role in the illness outcome and is affected by the disorder. The aims of this study were to compare family functioning reported by euthymic patients with bipolar disorder and hea...

Background/aims: Suicidal behavior (SB) in bipolar disorder (BD) is a complex multifactorial event resulting from an interaction of genetic, neurobiological and psychosocial factors. Recent studies identified new possible mechanisms, suggesting a role for sirtuins (SIRTs 1-7), a family of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-dependent enzymes with a...

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a genetically complex mental illness characterized by severe oscillations of mood and behavior. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified several risk loci that together account for a small portion of the heritability. To identify additional risk loci, we performed a two-stage meta-analysis of >9 million geneti...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27265716

Objectives: Although it is well established that euthymic patients with bipolar disorder can have cognitive impairment, substantial heterogeneity exists and little is known about the extent and severity of impairment within the bipolar II disorder subtype. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to analyze cognitive variability in a sample of pa...

Background Lithium remains a first-line treatment in bipolar disorder, but individual response is variable. Previous studies have suggested that lithium response is a heritable trait. However, no genetic markers have been reproducibly identified. Methods Here we report the results of a genome-wide association study of lithium response in 2,563 pat...

Background The SIMPLe project was designed with the aim of developing a smartphone application (i.e. app) to monitor and psychoeducate subjects with bipolar disorder through highly personalized messages from both passive and active data. The project was based on a face-to-face group program, which has an increasing scientific evidence of its effica...

Behavioral and emotional adverse events induced by drugs commonly prescribed to patients with bipolar disorders are of paramount importance to clinical practice and research. However, no reviews on the topic have been published so far. An extensive search was performed. Reports were reviewed if they described behavioral side effects related to phar...

Background. Functional remediation is a novel intervention with demonstrated efficacy at improving functional outcome in euthymic bipolar patients. However, in a previous trial no significant changes in neurocognitive measures were detected. The objective of the present analysis was to test the efficacy of this therapy in the enhancement of neuro-p...

The reciprocal relationship between bipolar disorder (BD) and the family system highlights the importance of adjunctive family intervention. However, its implementation in clinical practice is not widespread. To update the knowledge in this field and identify areas of uncertainty this manuscript present a comprehensive overview of the bidirectional...

INTRODUCTION:The SIMPLe project was designed with the objective of developing a smartphone application,which could monitor and psychoeducate bipolar disorder patients through highly personalized messages based on both passive and active information.A secondary long-term objective of the SIMPLe project is to integrate biomedical information with sma...

Background: Functional remediation is a novel intervention with demonstrated efficacy at improving functional outcome in euthymic bipolar patients. However, in a previous trial no significant changes in neurocognitive measures were detected. The objective of the present analysis was to test the efficacy of this therapy in the enhancement of neurop...

Lithium (Li) and valproate (VPA) are used in the treatment of bipolar disorder (BD), with narrow therapeutic window requiring periodic control of serum levels. This prevents intoxication, lack of efficacy due to low serum concentrations, and allows monitoring adherence. We aimed at evaluating the bioequivalence of salivary and blood levels of LI or...

The field of psychological interventions for bipolar disorder (BD) has experienced a skyrocketing progress in the past 15 years. Several interventions, including group psychoeducation, family-focused psychoeducation, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and interpersonal social-rhythm therapy have shown their prophylactic efficacy as an add-on to medicati...

Neuroprogression and Staging in Bipolar Disorder provides a comprehensive summary of the current state of the evidence regarding the use of staging systems in bipolar disorder. Edited by the leading researchers in the field, the book systematically covers the theoretical basis for staging, comparisons between different proposals, neurobiological un...

The high prevalence of comorbidity between bipolar disorder (BD) and other medical conditions, including autoimmune diseases, supports the hypothesis of the nature of BD as a biological illness category. Hence, an immune dysregulation process may play an important role in the development of at least certain subtypes of BD. Increasing evidence also...

Objective We examined the relationship between biological rhythms and severity of depressive symptoms in subjects with bipolar disorder and the effects of biological rhythms alterations on functional impairment.Method Bipolar patients (n = 260) and healthy controls (n = 191) were recruited from mood disorders programs in three sites (Spain, Brazil,...

To study the prevalence of attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adult patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and identify differential clinical features for a better diagnosis. A total of 163 euthymic bipolar out-patients were screened for ADHD with the ASRS.V1 and the WURS at a BD Unit. Patients with a positive screening were assess...

Drug-induced changes in serum prolactin (sPrl) levels constitute a relevant issue due to the potentially severe consequences on physical health of psychiatric patients such as sexual dysfunctions, osteoporosis and Prl-sensitive tumors. Several drugs have been associated to sPrl changes. Only antipsychotics have been extensively studied as sPrl-elev...

New technologies have recently been used for monitoring signs and symptoms of mental health illnesses and particularly have been tested to improve the outcomes in bipolar disorders. Web-based psychoeducational programs for bipolar disorders have also been implemented, yet to our knowledge, none of them have integrated both approaches in one single...

Introduction Bipolar disorder is a frequent condition in the general population with a high morbimortality, which consists in dysfunctional temporal fluctuations between different mood phases during which frequently there is a lack of insight. Besides the pharmacological treatment, psychoeducational programs have proved to be a cost-effective appro...

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical factors associated with the development of rapid cycling, as well as to elucidate the role of antidepressants.Methods The present study (NCT01503489) is a prospective, naturalistic cohort study conducted in a sample of 289 patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder followed and treated...