Retinal imaging can be used to study schizophrenia

A new research led by Terrie Moffitt studied retinal photographs of 922 people when they were 38 year old. They found that participants who were schizophrenic had a wider venular caliber in average in comparison to healthy participants. The average caliber of these patients was also wider than that of other groups with depression or diabetes. Participants who had hypertension had the same width of venular caliber as that of a schizophrenic but they also had increased arteriole caliber unlike a person with schizophrenia. Another important finding of the study is that microvasculature is not associated with overt cases of psychosis only because there was a significant increase in venular caliber in people who displayed psychotic symptoms but weren’t schizophrenic. According to researchers, “The noninvasive nature of retinal imaging, its relative cost-effectiveness, and the availability of the technology in primary care, optometry, and ophthalmology centers all suggest the value of retinal imaging analysis as an exciting tool for schizophrenia research.”