Manic mood swings can destroy grey matter
Bipolar episodes decrease brain size, and possibly intelligence
Grey matter in the brains of people with bipolar disorder is destroyed with each manic or depressive episode.
This was the finding of an MRI study of 21 patients with bipolar disorder, a mental illness marked by successive episodes of mania followed by deep depression. The patients' brains were scanned at either end of a four-year period, during which time each patient had at least one episode and some as many as six.
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Comments
Bipolar disorder may be associated with a tauopathy or partially be a tauopathy. I wonder if tau levels surge during an episode, also since lithium is an anti-tau molecule.
Posted by: Nancy Elaine Broskie M.D. | July 22, 2007 08:31 PM
It's nice to have physical proof for something known in the field for some time. The memories of people with severe bipolar disorder, especially those with ultradian rapid cycling, get progressively worse with each series of mood swings.
Dr. Broskie is likely onto something, as lithium is shown to have an anti-kindling, and thus protective effect.
Posted by: Jerod Poore | July 23, 2007 06:48 PM
The correlation between brain size and IQ is very small. With reduced brain volume we should be looking for impairments of social and social display abilities such as song, dance, and role-play (e.g. the ability to enjoiy a movie)
Posted by: Charles Whitehead | July 24, 2007 01:26 PM