Neurologists make breakthrough for mental health diagnosis

By Gwyn Wright via SWNS

The amount of grey matter in the brain holds the key to getting people with mental health conditions treated quicker, according to a new study from the UK.

Scientists found patients with more grey matter are more likely to recover from their illness.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have shown MRI scans of the brain can be used to find the grey matter, allowing doctors to identify patients whose condition is likely to get worse.

The breakthrough should help doctors identify at-risk patients more quickly and give them a better understanding of how mental health conditions develop.

By identifying brain conditions in their early stages, doctors will be able to offer patients more targeted and effective treatment.

Most mental health disorders are currently diagnosed by observing a patient and analyzing their symptoms and medical history.

Patients’ conditions may manifest themselves in similar ways but ultimately be different.

For the study, the research team analyzed MRI scans from around 300 patients who had recently been diagnosed with psychosis who took part in the PRONIA mental health study.

They used a machine-learning algorithm to assess data from the brain scans and sort them into groups or clusters.

Two clusters were identified from the scans, which each contained patients with psychosis and patients with depression.

Lower levels of grey matter, the darker tissue inside the brain involved in muscle control and functions such as memory, emotions and decision-making, were associated with people who struggled to recover from their illness.

High levels of grey matter were associated with people who were more likely to get better quickly, scientists said.

People with less grey matter had worse concentration, more inflammation and other cognitive impairments traditionally linked to depression and schizophrenia, researchers found.

The researchers also found an algorithm based on the biological clusters was more effective at predicting how patients would be feeling nine months later than traditional diagnostic systems.

Paris Alexandros Lalousis, the lead study author, said: “Currently, the way we diagnose most mental health disorders is based on a patient’s history, symptoms and clinical observations, rather than biological information.

“That means patients might have similar underlying biological mechanisms in their illness, but different diagnoses.

“By understanding those mechanisms more fully, we can give clinicians better tools to use in planning treatments.

“While the study contained people who were recently diagnosed with their illness, the other datasets we used contained people with chronic conditions.

“We found that the longer the duration of illness, the more likely it was that a patient would fall into the first cluster with lower grey matter volume.

“That really adds to the evidence that structural MRI scans may be able to offer useful diagnostic information to help guide targeted treatment decisions.”

The team now wants to look at the clusters in the clinic so they can gather data in real-time.

The findings were published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.