Recently, actor Brad Pitt revealed in an interview that he suffers from prosopagnosia, a neurological disorder sometimes referred to as “facial blindness.” Dani Blum describes the disorder’s symptoms, underlying causes, and available treatments in a New York Times article.

Signs of prosopagnosia

A behavioral neurologist named Borna Bonakdarpour at Northwestern Medicine, claims that facial blindness, not color blindness or general vision impairment, is the main sign of prosopagnosia.

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, there is no connection between the illness and memory loss, vision problems, or learning difficulties. Blum contends that it is distinct from occasionally forgetting or having trouble finding the appropriate term.

The severity of prosopagnosia varies from person to person. It could be difficult for some people to recognize the face of a close friend or relative, while it might be difficult for others to recognize their own reflection. Also, not everyone may be able to distinguish faces from objects.

The loneliness and worry that are frequently associated with prosopagnosia may also lead to chronic anxiety or depression in those who have the illness, according to some studies.

Blum notes that some people avoid spending time with family members and other close friends out of concern that they won’t be able to relate to them or truly appreciate them. She notes that when one has prosopagnosia, navigating basic social relationships might be difficult.

In a recent interview with GQ, Pitt admitted that he has struggled to recognize people’s faces for years despite never having been officially diagnosed with prosopagnosia.

In fact, in a 2013 Esquire interview, Pitt admitted that he frequently felt the urge to distance himself from others due to his struggles with facial recognition. I stay at home because of that, he remarked.

What is the underlying issue?

Most people who are diagnosed with prosopagnosia fall into one of two categories: those who have it congenitally or those who have it acquired.

Scientists hypothesize that the illness may run in families, although estimates suggest that up to one in every 50 people may struggle with it throughout their life. According to Blum, “research suggests that congenital, or lifelong, prosopagnosia is less common.”

Andrey Stojic, director of general neurology at the Cleveland Clinic, claims that babies with the illness “don’t seem to have any evident structural defect” in the brain. Interestingly, doctors are unaware of the exact etiology of congenital prosopagnosia because children with the disorder don’t appear to have any visible brain damage.

Yet, people who develop prosopagnosia later in life may have brain abnormalities brought on by a stressful situation or a head injury. In accordance with Bonakdarpour, prosopagnosia can also occur after a stroke or in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

What prosopagnosia medications are offered?

Bonakdarpour claims that prosopagnosia cannot currently be cured. But, the problem can be fixed. Those who have the syndrome frequently try to distinguish one another by focusing on physical characteristics like voice, stride, or hair color.

Neurologists often diagnose a patient using a battery of tests that evaluate their memory and face-recognition skills. That can take a while since doctors typically want to make sure that a patient’s face blindness isn’t a symptom of a more serious degenerative neurological disorder, says Blum.

It’s interesting to note that many patients, like Pitt, won’t get an official diagnosis. Stojic claims that many of the difficulties and issues he is experiencing are typical human occurrences.

He said that some people would find it to be relatively crippling.

Some people have trouble understanding it.