Scientists have discovered how the brain changes and differs due to different mental health issues.
A brain mapping project undertaken by researchers at Australia's Monash University's Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health and School of Psychological Sciences, assessed nearly 1,300 people with six different types of mental illness.
By measuring volume and size of 1,000 different brain regions, they found "extraordinary diversity" in brain changes in people with schizophrenia or major depression, the study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience stated.
This means that treating mental illnesses may be more effective when focusing on an individual's brain, rather than group averages.
"Over the past few decades, researchers have mapped brain areas showing reduced volume in people diagnosed with a wide variety of mental illness, but this work has largely focused on group averages, which makes it difficult to understand what is happening in the brains of individual people" Ph.D. student Ashlea Segal, who led the research, said in a statement.
"For example, knowing that the average height of the Australian population is about 1.7 m tells me very little about the height of my next-door neighbour," she said.
Researchers analyzed regions of the brain showing unusually small or large volumes in people diagnosed with mental illnesses, including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or autism spectrum disorder.
The results were very different across individuals.
"We confirmed earlier findings that the specific brain regions showing large deviations in brain volume vary a lot across individuals, with no more than 7% of people with the same diagnosis showing a major deviation in the same brain area," Professor Alex Fornito, who led the research team, said in the statement.
"This result means that it is difficult to pinpoint treatment targets or causal mechanisms by focusing on group averages alone. It may also explain why people with the same diagnosis show wide variability in their symptom profiles and treatment outcomes."
The research may explain why two people with the same mental illness may have more symptoms in common than two people with two different illnesses.
"Because the brain is a network, dysfunction in one area can spread to affect other, connected sites. We found that, while deviations occurred in distinct brain regions across different people, they were often connected to common upstream or downstream areas, meaning they aggregated within the same brain circuits," Segal said.
These findings will help inform future treatment routes for those with mental illnesses in the future.
Research into mental illnesses is vital in determining which treatments are most effective. In recent years, mental illness research has progressed, though arguably slower than studies of other health conditions.
Mental illnesses can have severe impacts on a person's day to day life. Schizophrenia, for example, is a condition that effects a person's ability to think or behave, often manifesting in delusions, or behavior that seems out of touch with reality, according to the Mayo Clinic.
But the exact cause of schizophrenia is not yet known. Scientists believe a combination of brain chemistry, structure, as well as genetics may be involved.
Depression also does not have a single cause. It may be caused by external factors in ones life, such as a stressful or upsetting life event, but scientists also believe it can manifest from chemical imbalances in the brain.
There is also evidence that mental illness runs in families, suggesting genes may be involved.
"We found that certain specific brain circuits were preferentially involved in some disorders, suggesting that they are potential treatment targets" Segal said.
"However, our findings suggest that these targets will only be appropriate for a subset of people. For instance, we found evidence that brain circuits linked to frontal areas were preferentially involved in depression. These circuits are commonly used as targets for non-invasive brain stimulation therapies, but our data suggest that they may only effective targets for around 1/3 of people."
The framework developed by these scientists opens new doors into mapping brain deviations in those with mental illnesses.
"The framework we have developed allows us to understand the diversity of brain changes in people with mental illness at different levels, from individual regions through to more widespread brain circuits and networks, offering a deeper insight into how the brain is affected in individual people," Fornito said.
Is there a health issue that's worrying you? Do you have a question about mental illness? Let us know via health@newsweek.com. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.
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