[The use of positron-emission tomography in psychiatry]

Positron-emission tomography (PET), a noninvasive analytical method, made possible the detection of regional alterations in the central nervous system, thus demonstrating "in vivo" the presence of biochemical alterations and the organization of cerebral function in the pathological states. The study of glucose cerebral metabolism velocity, performed recently with the aid of PET, reveals that in the patients with thymic disorders the values recorded for the bipolar syndromes differ from those recorded the for unipolar ones. At the same time, the direct measurement of the activity of the neuroanatomic structures involved in schizophrenia and their response to neuroleptics was possible. This technique and the F-fluoro-desixiglucose method were also applied to the patients with Alzheimer's disease, multi-infarct dementia, Huntington's disease. Wilson's disease and Parkinson's disease. Suggestive alterations of glucose metabolism velocity were noticed and the neuroanatomic structures involved in the pathological manifestations could be specified.