Sudhakar Jha
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Written By: Sudhakar Jha | Published : September 5, 2018 2:51 PM IST
To understand the difference between bipolar disorder and depression, a team of researchers studied neurons inside the brain that could help distinguish the two disorders © Shutterstock
Bipolar disorder and depression are very easily confused because of the fact that bipolar can include depression as one of the symptoms. However, one major difference is that depression is unipolar and there are euphoric periods in it, and on the other hand, bipolar includes signs of excitement too. And to understand the difference between the two, a team of researchers studied neurons inside the brain that could help distinguish the two disorders.
The team of researchers used sophisticated MRI scanning to see how the amygdala a set of neurons that processes different emotions reacts in patients when they process facial expressions like anger, fear, sadness, disgust and happiness. And after reading the patients, they found that amygdala responds differently in a person who has bipolar disorder or has depression.
The left side of the amygdala was found to be less active and less connected with other parts of the brain in people with bipolar than those suffering from depression. The researchers said that the findings of the study had 80 per cent accuracy in making the distinction.
Lead researcher Dr Mayuresh Korgaonkar from the Westmead Institute for Medical Research and the University of Sydney said that these differences could be used in the future to differentiate between bipolar disorder and depressive disorders.
Dr. Korgaonkar added that the two illness are virtually identical, and it was difficult to distinguish them. And that leads to wrong diagnosis which could be dangerous, and lead to poor social and economic outcomes for the patient.
Identifying brain markers that could reliably tell them apart would have immense clinical benefit. Such a marker could help us better understand both these disorders, identify risk factors for developing these disorders, and potentially enable clear diagnosis from early onset, Dr Korgaonkar reportedly said.
Dr. Korgaonkar and his team are now running phase 2 of the study, and aiming to further characterise the markers in a larger group of patients.
