The Study: In the individual patient, the differential diagnosis between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, during adolescence, can present a major problem. This lack of a clear diagnosis can delay the most appropriate medical care. Furthermore, the delay of the correct treatment can mean a more severe course of the illness for the patient. Therefore, researchers hope to aid clinicians in diagnosing the adolescent patient by using a new standard of objective methods for cognitive function and brain structure. The approach is to identify a particular group of cognitive and anatomical measurements that can be used together to aid in the differential diagnosis to determine whether a person has schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. This is important because, early in the disease process of schizophrenia and bipolar disease, it is often difficult for the clinician to make a definitive diagnosis between the two diseases for an individual patient. Since these two diseases each respond to a somewhat different medical treatment, it is crucial for the patient to undergo appropriate treatment as early in the disease process as possible. By performing statistical analyses of cognitive and MRI measures on the Brain Sciences Center’s PC supercomputer cluster, researchers have been able to identify several promising sets of tests that together can aid in the diagnosis of schizophrenia versus bipolar disorder. One advantage of using these measurements, to aid in diagnosis, is that they are objective measurements that could be used at any medical center, anywhere in the world. Applications: Early intervention can have enormous benefits for adolescents suffering from neuropsychiatic illnesses. Our goal is to create a tool that will optimize diagnosis, leading to improved medical care and quality of life for these young patients. |
