24 November 2025
How can closely related mental illnesses with similar symptoms be reliably distinguished from one another? As part of a German-Chinese collaboration, researchers from Forschungszentrum Jülich and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have helped develop a decision tree aimed at improving diagnostic accuracy. The team used a combination of diagnostic techniques and artificial intelligence (AI). As the authors report in Science Advances, their findings could substantially increase the precision of psychiatric diagnoses.
People with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder with psychotic symptoms or schizoaffective disorder often show very similar signs – hallucinations, delusions, changes in mood or a loss of contact with reality. Yet these are distinct conditions that require different treatment approaches.
The research team has now identified which brain features differentiate these disorders, what they share, and which objective markers can be used to clearly diagnose the conditions and assess their severity. Prof. Dr. Sarah Genon and Prof. Dr. Simon Eickhoff from the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine – Brain and Behaviour (INM-7) at Forschungszentrum Jülich, and several members of his team contributed to the study.
Prof. Dr. Simon Eickhoff, Director at INM-7 explains: “We identified objective and measurable brain characteristics that allow for a clearer distinction between mental illnesses. This could be an important step towards making diagnoses more accurate and faster, and ensuring that those affected receive more targeted treatment.”
Prof. Dr. Sarah Genon, co-author of the study, adds: "Furthermore, the study illustrates that AI and neurobiological data can work together to help us better understand the complex differences between mental illnesses."
Further information on the results can be found in the press release issued by Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (in German).
Distinguishing between the disorders
Schizophrenia is a mental illness in which perception and thought processes become imbalanced. Typical symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, disorganised thinking and severe social withdrawal.
In bipolar disorder with psychotic symptoms, periods of unusually elevated mood (mania) alternate with deep depression. During particularly severe episodes, psychotic symptoms may occur – such as distorted perceptions or marked loss of reality – which are usually linked to the individual’s prevailing mood.
Schizoaffective disorder combines features of schizophrenia with pronounced mood disturbances. Those affected experience psychotic symptoms together with depressive or manic episodes, either simultaneously or in close succession, making diagnosis especially challenging.
Fali Li, Guangying Wang, Sarah Genon, Simon B. Eickhoff, Runyang He, Chanlin Yi, Debo Dong, Dezhong Yao, Lin Jiang, Wei Wu, Peng Xu; Mapping neurophysiological and molecular profiles of heterogeneity and homogeneity in schizophrenia-bipolar disorder; Science Advances 11, eadz0389 (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adz0389
