Can you tell if you have mental illness by scanning your brain? Mood, adversity, and dopamine influence morbidity?
The surge in mental illness cases during the epidemic makes predicting the direction of the disease a big problem
Psychological problems have become a major threat that modern people cannot ignore. Especially since the COVID-19 epidemic, a higher proportion of mental illness problems have been reported around the world; in Taiwan, the number of psychiatric consultations exceeded 1.3 million from January to September 2021, an increase of 3.2% from last year and an increase from the same period last year. 10%.
However, the causes of mental illness remain poorly understood. Relevant studies have pointed out that comorbid early-onset mental illnesses have overlapping risk factors and varying symptoms, which makes the course of the disease difficult to predict and the post-recovery treatment process relatively difficult. McGill University in Canada released a research report stating that early-onset mental problems may be mainly caused by a combination of three factors.
Mental illness is related to “three major factors”? Research: Prediction accuracy is as high as 90%
The research team conducted long-term tracking of residents living in Montreal and Quebec, Canada. Fifty-two young people (30 women and 22 men) aged 11 to 16 underwent PET and MRI scans to measure dopamine reward pathways in the brain. In addition, the research team also collected the subjects’ “emotional responses” to specific events and previous attitudes toward “adversity” through questionnaires, and cross-compared them with MRI brain scan results.
The results showed that three factors, “dopamine mechanism in the brain”, “emotional response” and “attitude towards adversity”, predicted the subject’s “early-onset mental problems” three years later with an accuracy of more than 90%. These include depression, anxiety, substance addiction, dyslexia, bulimia and ADHD. Previous studies have shown that excessive secretion of dopamine in the brain is related to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Prior to this, Ireland also conducted analysis and research on children’s mental health. “Childhood adversity” before the age of 9, such as parental conflict, death of a close relative, or serious injury caused by external forces, is significantly related to mental health problems in late adolescence. Maisha Iqbal, the lead author of the study, said that this is the first study to combine three important factors, which has important symptomatic significance for understanding the causes of a wide range of mental illnesses and early treatment of mental illnesses.
Is mental health related to both biology and sociology? Important progress in “early detection” of mental illness?
Iqbal believes that these three factors affecting mental health represent the three major aspects of psychological research, namely biology, sociology and psychology. In biology, the dopamine reward mechanism in the brain is used to observe the physiological differences between individuals; in sociology, it focuses on the phenomenon and prevention of abuse and neglect in childhood; in psychology, it is related to personal impulsive behavior and emotional management.
“Until recent years, scientists still believed that mental illness reflected differences among individuals.” Marco Leyton, co-author of the study and professor of the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University, said that mental illness has “specificity”, which is the current mainstream view and affects The prognosis and treatment of diseases, and related public health policies.
“This study may update the narrative about the specificity of mental illness.” Leyton said that when focusing on the “universality” of mental illness, it may be a big step forward for early prevention. However, more clinical research is needed to confirm the potential impact of sociology and biology on mental health.
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A new understanding of mental illness News
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