中英双语新闻 抑郁症有望通过大脑扫描确诊

Psychiatrists 2 have struggled with their diagnoses of depression; patients often present with overlapping 3 symptoms. But researchers have made a breakthrough. In a new study published in Psychological Medicine, discovery which shows a distinct differences in the brain scans of people suffering different types of depression. Nance 4 Haxton has more. At least one in five australians will be affected 5 by a major depressive disorder 6 at some time in their lives. It's a complex condition to identify，but researchers are now a step closer using medical imaging techniques commonly known as MRIs. Black Dog Institute professor Gordon Parker says it's a significant breakthrough. The study I think is more distinctly informative 7 in telling us that there at least two key types of depression. One is the very biological depression which we call 'melancholia', and where we do need to be able to identify this condition so that people with it can be properly treated. I suppose another analogy would be looking at diabetes 8；for type one diabetes we know that most people are going to need insulin，for type two diabetes you probably use a non-drug strategy diet and exercise and loss of weight. And therefore we need better ways of separating out the biological type of depression, melancholia, from the other conditions. And particularly when we know the cause and the regions of the brain that affect it，this is an opportunity for developing a more appropriate treatments. I think it builds an increasingly clearer story in terms of where the problems lie in the brain when people go into the 'black dog' melancholic 9 depression.

Researchers for this study conducted MRI scans on people diagnosed with depression while they watched happy and sad movies. What they discovered is that there are very distinct neurobiological changes in different parts of their brains，depending on which type of depression they had. Neuroscientist and study leader Dr.Christine Guo says it's hoped their findings will lead to better diagnostic tests. If can better diagnosing people for this underlying 10 cause of their depression symptoms，we should be better treat them in the future. And hopefully that the treatment will be more successful? Exactly yeah,because it would be more targeted，or you could call it personalised medicine for a psychiatrist 1. And this is the start of that new approach I suppose? Yeah exactly，yeah，yeah. To sort of shift away from a symptom-based diagnosis 11 in psychiatry 12，which you know has been in the field forever.

Group leader Dr Micheal Breakspear says the findings will help doctors break through the often overlapping symptoms that people with depression present. They range from sad mood，low energy to poor sleep. Each one is a potential clue that can lead to doctors identifying the underlying cause of their illness. A number of our recent brain imaging studies have found distinct sub-types of patterns of activity in the brain for people with depression. Depression is really a symptom；it's a symptom of low mood，loss of interest，there is other symptoms，and what have been doing in psychiatry is just classifying people into disorders 13 based on their symptoms. But as imaging technology has advanced, we are now at the point where we can find distinct underlying differences in the brains of people，that we know from other studies respond differently to different types of medication.

The joint 14 study published in Psychological Medicine was carried out by QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute，the university of New South Wales and the Black Dog Institute. while it may still be years before the diagnostic tools are ready for more general use. Professor Parker says these findings are an important step towards more effective treatment of depression. It sort of advances are clinical observation that we've long known for over 2,000 years that there was this depression called melancholia or the black dog. But its origins have been debated for years，a long period of time. It was thought to be certain neuro-transmitters and there have been multiple other causes that have been suggested. But neuroscience,in the last decade in particular，is moving to a model of looking at parts of the brain that are no longer connected, or they become disconnected during episodes of illness，and this study not only shows that people with melancholia have certain disconnections in the brain that people with non-melancholic depression and normal people don't show，even when depressed，it points at the areas of the brain that are involved and tells us something as to the actual causal process where things go wrong when people are in episode. And ideally that will lead to better treatment.

心理学家一直对如何确诊抑郁症而困扰，许多病症通常相互重叠。但研究学家却有了一项新突破。《心理医学》期刊发表了一项最新研究，发现不同抑郁症患者的脑部扫描截然不同。请听南希·哈克斯顿的报道。至少有五分之一澳洲人会在某一阶段患有某种抑郁症。由于抑郁症病症很复杂，所以很难确诊，但通过一个名叫核磁共振的图像技术，研究人员距离确诊又近了一步。来自黑犬研究所的戈登·帕克而教授认为，这是一项重大突破。我认为这项研究包含了许多信息，我们现在所知的抑郁症至少有两种。一种是生理学抑郁症，我们叫作“melancholia”，我们需要对病患进行确诊，之后再接受相应治疗。另一种相似病症是糖尿病；对于患一型糖尿病的病患而言，多数要进行胰岛素治疗，二型糖尿病通常采用非药物治疗法，通过饮食，锻炼和减肥来进行治疗。所以我们要把生理学抑郁症和其它病症进行区分。当我们对病因和影响抑郁症的脑部区域进行了解后，我们就有可能对其进行治疗。我们对“黑犬”抑郁症的脑部问题又有了全新的认识。

研究人员让患者观看电影，一类是喜剧一类是悲剧，同时对患者的脑部进行核磁检查。发现不同大脑部位的脑神经变化截然不同，而这取决于病患的抑郁症类型。研究主任，神经病学家克里斯丁·郭博士称，希望这一发现能够提高诊断检测水平。如果我们能发现病症的根本原因，那么我们就能对其进行更加完善的治疗。希望治疗手段能够更加有效？是的，这将加强治疗针对性，或者说是心理学家的私人定制治疗。那么这是新治疗方法的开端吗？的确。在我们心理学中，我们一直以症状来进行诊断，我们要做的是摒弃我们之前的方法。

小组主任米歇尔·布雷克斯皮尔博士称，由于许多抑郁症患者的病症重叠，这一发现将帮助医生解决这一难题。病症从情绪低落、无精打采到睡眠不足。这些都可以成为医生发现主要病因的条件。近期，研究人员对大量大脑成像进行了研究，发现抑郁症患者的大脑子类型活动明显不同。抑郁症有许多病症，情绪低落，提不起兴趣等，但在心理学领域，我们要将病症与相应疾病对号入座。但随着成像技术的发展，我们可以通过大脑成像来发现病症的本质不同。各种治疗手段的效果是截然不同的。

这项研究是由QIMR Berghofer医学研究所、新南威尔士大学以及“黑犬研究所”共同开发完成，并刊登在了《心理医学》期刊。该诊疗技术要投入临床应用还需要几年时间。帕克教授称，该发现是提高抑郁症治疗技术的又一项新突破。两千多年以来，我们对“黑狗”抑郁症的临床观察又有了新的突破。但人们对它的起源争论了许多年。一直认为它是某种神经递质，病因也是多种多样。但在过去十年间，神经学领域对大脑神经中断进行了研究，据该项研究显示，抑郁症患者的神经确实发生某种中断，而非抑郁症患者，或正常人却不存在这种情况，即使是抑郁症患者，正常大脑活动也会出现问题。

希望该发现能够提高治疗水平。