Can a look into the eyes show how difficult the depression of a person affected is? Scientists from the Max Planck Institute have done research on this. Their findings should enable better diagnoses in the long term.
Depression varies from person to person. Accordingly, it is all the more important that every patient receives the best possible therapy for them. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich have now found a way that could help doctors make the right diagnosis – and it has to do with a look in the eye.
Depression can be read from the pupils? Researchers studied pupillary reflex
When we look at something we desire or find beautiful, our pupils automatically dilate. This uncontrollable effect has been known to science for decades. A simple game in which the study participants (healthy and sick subjects) could win a sum of money showed that this pupil reflex is much weaker in people suffering from depression. With a special measuring technique, this effect could be determined extremely precisely. It was measured using a special method that provided the researchers with 250 frames per second.
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Smaller dilation of the pupils in depressives
Particularly revealing: the less the pupils dilated in view of the expected reward compared to healthy people, the more severe the symptoms of the sick person turned out to be. The scientists concluded that there must be reduced activation of the nervous system involved. «We suspect that there is a physiological system behind it, which can partially explain the drive disorder that is often reported in patients,» study leader Prof. Victor Spoormaker is quoted as saying in the official press release.
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Hope for more targeted treatment
What makes this finding so significant is that additional inclusion of the pupils can lead to a more informed diagnosis in the long term. It is no longer necessary to rely solely on the patient’s statements, but with the pupil check there is another biological factor. «Then we could also treat these patients with drugs in a more targeted manner,» says Spoormaker.