Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia share striking brain similarities, according to new research by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Beaumont Hospital.
The new study also found that in both conditions, a process occurs affecting how information is transmitted from neuron to neuron, a finding which could lead to the developments of improved treatments.
This was the first study to look at sub-regions of the hippocampus, the region in which abnormalities most often occur in both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Certain areas of the hippocampus were discovered to be different in people with the disorders, in terms of how proteins are affected, compared to the normal population.
Additionally, in both conditions, a process occurs which controls how information is transmitted by the shuttling of proteins to and from the synapse.
"Our study is the first to show the depth of protein similarities between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder as they appear in the brain and the processes associated with them,” said Professor David Cotter of the Department of Psychiatry, RCSI and Beaumont Hospital, as quoted by News Medical. “Although, the two conditions present with different symptoms, the research has shown that they are almost identical in terms of how they present in the brain.”
