By Irada Yunusova
Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness that affects many individuals. It makes it difficult for people to regulate their emotions and affected individuals experience mood swings between depression and mania. Mania is a persistent, elevated, expansive or irritated mood that creates feelings of grandiosity, decreased need for sleep, racing thoughts, increased distractibility, and pressured speech. Bipolar disorder is ranked in the top ten most significantly disabling disorders worldwide, possibly because of the long delay in diagnosing this disorder correctly, sometimes as long as 10 years.
Currently, mental disorders, including bipolar disorder, are diagnosed through self-report and observation by others using scientifically-defined symptoms. However, new research is now indicating that brain scans can help distinguish differences between bipolar and non-bipolar individuals. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may now be useful in diagnosing mental illnesses.
Recently, Sophia Frangou and other researchers from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai were able to correctly distinguish bipolar patients from healthy individuals approximately 73 percent of the time using solely the individuals' MRI brain scans. When this study was replicated with a separate group of patients and healthy individuals, researchers were able to correctly distinguish between the two groups with 72 percent accuracy.
Although clinical assessments and therapy are still vital, this finding shows that mental illnesses may be identified on a biological level, as well. The use of brain scans for diagnosis is still under investigation and is therefore not ready for widespread use yet. However, these findings will defienitely impact the diagnosis of mental illnesses in years to come.
Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/06/09/diagnosis-of-the-future-brain-scan-shows-promise-in-diagnosing-bipolar/55793.html
No comments:
Post a Comment