According to a new study, adolescents with bipolar disorder demonstrate different patterns of brain development when compared to others in their age group that do not have the condition.
Researchers at Yale University found that brain development among bipolar adolescents included the loss of a higher volume of neurons than expected.
The discovery has highlighted the fact that key areas of the brain, which are responsible for regulating emotions, develop differently among adolescents with the condition.
In the study, which has been published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, scientists highlighted the differences in the prefrontal cortex and insula, shown by MRI scans of 37 adolescents with bipolar disorder compared to the scans from 35 adolescents without it.
Out of the test group, researchers also noticed that the brains of adolescents with bipolar disorder showed no increase in white-matter connections as they developed, which is what can be expected from typical adolescent brain development.
Dr Hilary Blumberg, professor of psychiatry and diagnostic radiology in the Yale Child Study Center, and a senior author of the study, said: “In adolescence, the brain is very plastic so the hope is that one day we can develop interventions to prevent the development of bipolar disorder.”
It is during adolescence that an individual is most likely to develop bipolar disorder, and the condition is marked by severe shifts in mood, energy, and activity levels.
The Yale study was repeated over a two-year period and it is hoped that it will help with future research into medical interventions that are capable of ending bipolar disorder.