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VITAL SIGNS: PATTERNS; Scanning a Brain for Bipolar Root
A part of the brain involved in emotion is much smaller in both teenagers and adults who have bipolar disorder, a recent study has found, a discovery that may help doctors make an earlier diagnosis of the disease.
The researchers, who reported their findings in the current issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry, looked at the amygdala, a small part of the brain in the front temporal lobe.
Earlier studies of adults with bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, had reported that the amygdala was smaller among adults with the disorder than among those without it.
The researchers in this study, led by Dr. Hilary P. Blumberg of Yale, also looked at adolescents to try to determine whether the abnormality was caused by the brain's deterioration over the course of the disorder or whether it was an early feature of it.
Source: New York Times