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January 29, 2006

"Stopping the Swings" - bipolar disorder

Pettigrew’s students rapidly alternated between seeing the horizontal and vertical stripes—it took less than 10 seconds. But when Pettigrew looked through the apparatus, he switched very slowly—10-20 seconds. This “slow hemispheric switching rate” occurs, Pettigrew hypothesizes, because bipolar people are stuck in one hemisphere of the brain at a time.

After his discovery, Pettigrew tested the switch rates of 18 bipolar adults when they were neither depressed nor manic. Compared to 49 normal controls, the bipolar subjects had a significantly slower rate of alternation. And the more severe their disorder, the slower they switched. Individuals with less severe illness sometimes had switch rates that overlapped with the rates of normal people, so there is no cutoff level above which he can be sure someone is safe from the disorder. Still, says Pettigrew, the method works fairly well, even on kids down to five years of age whom he has tested with only slightly modified procedures.

Pettigrew’s current research uses slow switching to identify otherwise healthy young people who might be vulnerable to the development of bipolar disorder. “Having identified ‘slow switchers,’ I then follow them to see if the slow rivalry rate is a predictor of later episodes of mania and/or depression.” This research will help clarify whether switching rates can be an effective diagnostic test.

"Stopping the Swings," by Katherine Miller, Science Notes 2001

Posted at January 29, 2006 11:39 AM | Categories: Research

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