Patients with chronic bipolar disorder exhibit widespread increases in extracellular free water.

Our study suggests that chronic BP shows similar WM changes to early SZ, suggesting that extracellular FW increases could be a transient indication of recent psychotic episodes. Since FW increase in SZ has been suggested to be related to neuroinflammation, we theorize that neuroinflammation might be a shared pathology between chronic BP and early SZ.