Eyes could hold the key to diagnosing Manic Depression

Over the past few weeks many of us will have heard that scientists believe Alzheimer’s disease could be diagnosed through a simple eye test. However, Australian researchers are now suggesting that they could also help in the understanding of manic depression and a possible test for diagnosis of the disorder.

The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences sees researchers from the Monash University in Melbourne discussing their findings. Leading researcher, Dr. Steven Miller expresses how he and his colleagues have been looking for a biological marker that is specific to the disorder and this led them to studying “binocular rivalry”. Binocular rivalry occurs when our eyes are artificially made to look at two different images at the same time which causes the brain not to merge the two images but to focus on one image before flipping to the other. This “flip” averagely occurs within 1 to 2 seconds and it is this flip timing that could reveal manic depression as his previous studies have shown that people suffering from manic depression had a flip rate around 3 to 4 seconds but sometimes 7 to 10 seconds. His most recent study has backed up this evidence to conclude that the flip rate is down to manic depression and not a medical influence by testing 350 twins who have no psychological disorders. This then revealed that the flip rate is something that is inherited as the identical twins had a much more similar flip rate compared to the non-identical twins.

Evidently many more clinical tests need conducting with regards to this area but Dr. Miller and other scientists are hopeful that the discovery of this genetic marker could help in the understanding of many psychological disorders. For example, the results can now be used to be developed into an understanding of what genes are involved in mental illnesses and also reveal an understanding of who is most susceptible to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Furthermore, within the past few weeks two seriously life affecting disorders and diseases have been targeted through the eyes showing us just how important and significant a role our eyes play.

26th January 2010

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