Journal of Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging published data obtained by the Australian scientists from the Sydney University, showing that bipolar disorder can be separated from the depression through the study of the activity of the brain, especially the amygdala. This method, according to them, effective even when symptoms or other diseases do not manifest themselves, for example, while in remission.
Bipolar disorder can be difficult to distinguish from clinical depression, as in this disease there are also depression. The authors of the new work declared that the brain of patients suffering from these two ailments, yet different. In particular, to detect such a distinction is possible using functional MRI.
The experts worked with patients who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, depressive disorder in remission and healthy. The volunteers scanned the brain activity, causing different emotions showing the respective images.
It turned out that a good pointer to the disease can be the condition of the amygdala – a small area of the brain responsible for understanding emotions. In healthy people, this area of the brain differed in their functions from depressed patients and from patients with bipolar disorder
“The difference in activity of the amygdala in the processing of emotions can indicate the presence of mental disorders”, – summed up in the end, the researchers.
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