Could an MRI Diagnose Bipolar Disorder?

It's possible - and with today's technology. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have found that there is a clear difference between brain activity in patients who have unipolar depression from those who have bipolar disorder. Right now it can be difficult to diagnose bipolar disorder. And since bipolar disorder is so often misdiagnosed as clinical depression at first, and it can take months or years for the correct diagnosis to be made, a test like this could make an enormous difference to people haven't been diagnosed correctly - even saving lives. All this is according to Professor Mary Phillips, professor of psychiatry and director of the Clinical and Translational Affective Neuroscience Program at the University of Pittsburgh, who spoke at the Royal College of Psychiatrists' International Congress in Edinburgh last week. She told the Congress, "Only one in five sufferers are correctly diagnosed at first presentation to a doctor and it can take up to ten years before suffers receive a correct diagnosis." Professor Phillips went on to say, "The problem is that sufferers [of bipolar disorder] frequently fail to tell their doctors about hypomanic phases because they can be experienced as quite pleasant or judged not to be abnormal at all." Professor Phillips also raised the possibility that in the future such tests could be used to predict future bipolar disorder in young people who haven't shown any symptoms. For those who are at risk of developing BP due to fam...
Source: About.com Bipolar Disorder - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: news