More Efficient Way to Spot & Diagnose Schizophrenia

In this article, it states that the professor of physiology, John Pettigrew, has discovered a way to more accurately spot and diagnose schizophrenia, which is often misdiagnosed within 70% of people who go through their first psychosis. Though symptoms of schizophrenia can be different for people, it is often characterized by having hallucinations and delusions but these symptoms or any symptom whatsoever is not definitive for diagnosis.

John Pettrigrew made a Schizophrenia Diagnosis Machine based on the reactions that occur when a person is presented with a different visual stimulus (something that excites an organism or part to functional activity) for each eye. What happens is, the brain "switches from perceiving one image from another" but with patients that have schizophrenia, the "switch" is faster.

The actual images are two sets of a network of bars, or gratings, that are superimposed to form a diamond-shaped pattern. "The rate that the viewer's perception switches from one form of motion to the other can then be used to diagnose mood disorders, or even a predisposition to such a disorder."

I find this to be important, because I think nowadays that many people are being misdiagnosed whether it be autism, schizophrenia, and especially ADHD. Having a machine such as this to diagnose schizophrenia is very relevant to the population and the medical field that diagnose such patients because it is more efficient and maybe this can trigger more people to come up with more efficient ways to diagnose other mental conditions.