The role of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging in psychiatric research

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become an important tool in the investigation of cerebral abnormalities associated with psychiatric illnesses. There are a number of benefits of investigating psychiatric illness with MRI, which is superior to computed tomography scanning. MRI has been used to study neurologic deficits seen in schizophrenia, affective disorders, dementia, and more recently, anxiety disorders. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy offers a new investigational technique that adds functional information to the structural changes seen with standard MRI scanning. This review highlights the current data in living human subjects that demonstrate structural changes in psychiatric disorders using MRI, including recent studies of the anxiety disorders.