Would you test your child for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia if it were as easy as looking into there eyes? A fear for me is that if I have a children will they have bipolar disorder like me. A bigger fear I have is if I have a child without I'll go crazy looking for some thing that's not there. I know I would be watching them like a hawk all there lives watching for signs but if there is a test that can diagnose it then I would be able to relax and I'm sure a lot of others would get a proper diagnoses earlier.
Close to the back of your eye is the retina. I contains light sensors called cones and rods. Rods see white and black while cones see colour. If you have less rods then you may have a harder time seeing at night when your driving details may not be as sharp and having less cones may lead to a degree of colour blindness. A new study done http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19833322 it was found that the ability of light to activate the rods was greatly reduced in people that are in the high risk group.
There is also talking about possible prevention though genetic testing which brings up my question of whether bipolar disorder is a disorder created because of societies inability to incorporate others differences. In an earlier blog, 'Don't be pissed, this may be a gift,' explains how I feel about people with bipolar disorder fulfilling a purpose in society. Even though I would love for people not to have to go through what I have, I still wonder if taking this step of genetic prevention will make us loose some thing in our society. Tell me your thoughts.
I will leave you with a quote by Dr. John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry. “It is important to appreciate that for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as for colour-blindness or selective hearing loss, people who appear to perceive the world normally may actually have subtle but important problems with perception, which may contribute to other adaptive impairments.”
5 comments:
Excellent post.
Even though I am not Bipolar myself, it would be very interesting for me to take such a test to see if I have less cones than rods; which would explain the problems I have with seeing color.
Thank you Paul for leaving your comment. This test would not necessarily show you how many cones and rods you have but tests how light is activates them. Your Ophthalmologist has some simple tests to discover whether you would have a lack of one or the other.
There is a greater number of men with less cones and a greater number of women with less rods so a greater number of men have color blindness than women. Just a little fact if your interested.
Although most of my life has been anything but easy, I suffer from Bi-polar disorder, I believe that my creativity and understanding of the way the world is, is greatly enhanced.
I am fully recovered taking meds, have been for years and stable. But the things I saw and learned, I would never have if I hadn't lived through the turmoil. So I don't believe we should tangle with nature.
An ophthalmologist examined my eyes as per standard annual check up on me as diabetic. Praise God my eyes are healthy. The Fluorescein Angiogram Reading, just noted a minor aneurysm in my right eye, consequence of heightened blood glucose. I want to read about anything that concerns the eye as this is one among the many organs diabetes affects. Then I found this bipolar disorder. Be back for more read.
It's so good to hear you are doing good and see the positives. Bipolar disorder is most often seen as such a negative a lot of us miss all the positive traits given to us as well as the strength we have by overcoming our battles.
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