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The eye as window on the brain
Diagnosing mental illness with absolute certainty puts experienced psychiatrists to the test. In many psychiatric illnesses, the symptoms are varied and overlap in part with other disorders. For example, schizophrenia and depression can become completely apathetic. A recent study examined whether a retinal badysis could lead to a better diagnosis of mental illness.
Ocular involvement has long been recognized in certain disorders of the central nervous system such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Researchers at Ulm University Hospital have now examined in a study whether the eyes could also provide information about mental illness. To this end, they performed an optical coherence tomography (OCT) eye exam in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The results were recently published in the journal "Schizophrenia Research".
Schizophrenia has many faces
Schizophrenia is a difficult disease to diagnose and complex. Symptoms can range from the loss of reality to delusions and hallucinations, to disorders of thought and language. Many patients also report visual difficulties. The view can be blurry, contrasts and movements are perceived harder. Ulm neurologists and psychiatrists have now discovered retinal abnormalities in the eye of patients with schizophrenia.
The window on the brain
The retina and the optic nerve develop directly from the inter brain. For this reason, the eye of medical research is increasingly seen as a "window on the brain". The research team led by Professor Carlos Schönfeldt-Lecuona, psychiatrist in Ulm, and Professor Elmar Pinkhardt, neurologist, has now tested with an ophthalmology imaging method the ability to detect psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.
Course of the study
Researchers used optical coherence tomography, a non-invasive, three-dimensional imaging technique that determines the thickness and volume of retinal layers. The team applied this technique to 26 Ulm patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders. The scans were then compared to a healthy control group.
New marker for schizophrenia discovered
"For the first time, we carried out a high-resolution single-layer badysis of the retina in schizophrenic patients and a matched control group in age and bad," says Professor Schönfeldt-Lecuona in a press release on the results of the study. 39; study. The results were clear: as the study showed, patients with schizophrenia had significantly reduced thickness and volume in almost all measured retinal layers. Researchers speak of statistical significance compared to healthy people. In case of long-term illness, the total volume of the nerve fiber layer decreases continuously.
Schizophrenia affects the retinal layers
"Our studies show that schizophrenia causes narrowing of the retinal layers that can be detected with an OCT scanner, as well as studies showing a change in brain volume by MRI." Summarizes the findings. However, the underlying mechanisms of structural changes in the retina are not yet sufficiently understood.
Can retinal badysis be used for diagnosis?
"It is quite conceivable that the OCTs can help in the future, for example, to identify more quickly the different subtypes of schizophrenia and even to personalize the therapy," explain the researchers. However, further investigations are needed for this purpose. (Vb)
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