"Fuzzy Thinking" Is A Symptom Of Depression And Bipolar Disorder
(IN PHOTO)Andreas Lubitz runs the Airportrace half marathon in Hamburg in this September 13, 2009 file photo. The co-pilot who appears to have deliberately crashed Germanwings plane carrying 149 passengers into the French Alps received psychiatric treatment for a "serious depressive episode" six years ago, German tabloid Bild reported on March 27, 2015. Prosecutors in France, after listening to the cockpit voice recorders, offered no motive for why Andreas Lubitz, 27, would take the controls of the Airbus A320, lock the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately set it veering down from cruising altitude at 3,000 feet per minute. REUTERS

A new research claims that walking around with your head in a fog is a symptom of psychiatric disorder. The study, carried out at the University of Michigan Medical School and Depression Center, confirms that "fuzzy thinking" driven by differences in brain activity is indeed a symptom of depression and bipolar disorder.

Clinical depression and bipolar disorders cause extreme sadness and despair in people, while mental health experts find it difficult to distinguish between the two. Now, the new study findings,published in the journal BRAIN, indicate that unrelated mood disorders, unipolar depression and bipolar disorder may be more similar than we realise.

The study’s lead author, Dr Kelly Ryan, a neurobiologist at the University of Michigan, says, “We need to rely more heavily on what the neurobiology tells us, that these disorders may be more alike than they are distinct. Also, difficulties in attention or cognitive control is likely an underlying trait of the disorder rooted in brain activity."

The researchers carried on their analysis by conducting a cognitive test on 612 women, two-thirds of whom had already been diagnosed with major depression or bipolar disorder. The test, which is designed to measure control over cognitive functions like attention and working memory, measured the participant’s reactions to emotional photographs.

The test results revealed that women suffering from clinical depression or with bipolar disorder showcased a poor performance level in comparison to the control group with no mental health disorders. Also, their brain scans showed that the bottom five percent of women had one of the two disorders. They exhibited abnormally high activity in the right posterior parietal cortex, a region in brain which helps to control functions like attention, working memory, problem solving and reasoning.

Furthermore, the women diagnosed with bipolar disorder had lower-than-normal activity in this particular region of the brain. This indicates a shared cognitive impairment among the two mood disorders which might be existing on the same spectrum.

Ryan added, “Traditionally in psychiatry we look at a specific diagnosis, or category. But the neurobiology is not categorical, we’re not finding huge differences between what clinicians see as categories of disease. This raises questions about traditional diagnoses. Understanding that cognitive dysfunction is rooted in the brain, regardless of which mood disorder may help to identify risk of developing such disorders.”

The researchers are of a belief that these study findings might help in finding improved diagnostic tests and treatments in the future.

To contact the writer, email: ruchira.dhoke@gmail.com

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