Volume 11 Issue 1, January 2006

Although pathophysiology of bipolar disorder remains unknown, expression of the vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT) has been shown to be elevated in some bipolar patients. On pages 99–113 of this issue of Molecular Psychiatry a paper entitled “Over-expression of the Drosophila vesicular monoamine transporter increases motor activity and courtship but decreases the behavioral response to cocaine” by Chang et al. explores the use of Drosophila to study the behavioral consequences of increasing VMAT expression. The cover shows a montage of cells in the nervous system of Drosophila that express the fly ortholog of VMAT.