Bipolar disorder, a sometimes misdiagnosed mental illness characterized by wide emotional swings, may be identifiable by chemical abnormalities visible in sufferers' brains, according to Reuters.
Detailed brain scans performed on 42 adults, half of whom had been previously diagnosed as bipolar, showed consistently different levels of five chemicals in areas of the brain that control behavior, movement, vision, reading, and sensory information, they said. The Mayo Clinic study used a high-power magnetic resonance imaging scanner that had twice the magnetic field strength of scanners previously used to examine the brains of bipolar patients.
The types of therapy used with bipolar disorder differ from those employed to fight depression, so a correct diagnosis is important, according to Mayo Clinic radiologist John Port in a report delivered to the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. Most diagnoses are made based on conversations with patients.
The National Institute of Mental Health reports that roughly 2.3 million Americans suffer from bipolar disorder.
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