For patients newly diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BD), augmenting their standard medication with low-dose aspirin didn’t improve mood stability or reduce depression, according to a study published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica.Why It’s Relevant
Recent studies have indicated a possible link between immunoinflammatory dysfunction and BD. That suggests that anti-inflammatory agents such as low-dose aspirin could potentially be repurposed to treat BD. To test this hypothesis, researchers conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled, augmentation trial involving 240 adults in Denmark with newly diagnosed BD.
By the Numbers
- After six months, there was no clinically relevant difference in patient-reported mood instability between adults who took 150mg aspirin daily in addition to their regular medication versus those who took placebo.
- There were also no beneficial effects of low-dose aspirin on other studied outcomes, which included depressive symptoms, manic symptoms, sleep variability, and cognition.
- In fact, the researchers saw a slight worsening in depressive symptoms among those taking low-dose aspirin at six months. However, this increase was no longer observed at the 12-month follow-up.
The Other Side
Participants had all been diagnosed with BD within the past two years, so they had few medical comorbidities and a relatively low baseline symptom burden, possibly limiting generalizability to patients with more symptomatic or progressed illness.
What’s Next
The results do not provide a rationale for the broad clinical use of low-dose aspirin in early-stage BD, the researchers noted, but it remains unexplored whether aspirin might have potential benefits in patients with BD and comorbid risk factors such as obesity, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia.
Related Info
Source
Caroline Fussing Bruun et al.: No effect of low-dose aspirin versus placebo as add-on treatment in bipolar disorder: results from a randomized controlled trial. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2025 Nov 30. doi: 10.1111/acps.70055.
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