A novel brain scan may help ease bipolar disorder because its magnetic fields affect the electrical workings of the patients' brains.

The Boston Globe reports that researchers at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., are trying to develop a much smaller version of a magnetic resonance imaging device that hospitals use to scan patients.

According to the Globe, the researchers stumbled on to the discovery. A research assistant found that patients who got the scan for other reasons emerged in better moods than they were before the scan.

One patient was so depressed that she couldn't even answer questions. After a 20-minute scan, she was astounded by how much better she felt. "What happened? What did you do?" the researcher, Aimee Parow, told the newspaper. Another emerged joking with Parow, which was completely out of character.

Researchers suspect that the magnets in the brain scan affect the brain, and that the mood-lifting can last for weeks, according to the Globe.