According to a commentary, there is still a long way to go before genetic markers are used to guide lithium treatment in bipolar disorder. However, some clinical predictors for good and poor lithium response reported by the researchers have already been shown to be of some use in clinical practice. It notes that a growing number of clinicians have returned to lithium as their main mood stabiliser, not only because of its cost, ease of use, and relative absence of metabolic burden, but also because of its neuroprotective properties. Furthermore, differential responses to lithium in hyperexcitable neurons from patients with bipolar I disorder have been identified recently, which could accelerate research in this area. It concludes that although human genomics research in bipolar disorder is still in its early stage, the findings of this study, and others have made substantial progress.