[Clinical imaging in psychiatry]

Brain imaging has made surprisingly remarkable progress since the early, and now historic days, of invasive radiology, which has now been replaced with a number of spectacularly precise techniques: structural (CT Scan, MRI) and functional (PET, SPECT) imaging, direct imaging during neurosurgery, EEG and its computer-assisted derivatives, and transcerebral ultrasonography. We present five cases with two alleged autisms, a cerebral malaria, a panic disorder and to Parkinson disease with a depressive component. Using modern imaging methods the following respective diagnoses were arrived at: a left temporal cyst, a Sanfilippo mucopolysaccharidosis, a septum lucidum agenesis, a right temporal cyst, and a pituitary adenoma. These cases illustrate the scientific, emotional and philosophical impact, on physicians, and patients alike, of modern imaging technology. Neuroradiology, biochemistry and surgical imaging require a multi disciplinary approach and a perfect knowledge of psychiatric semeiology. In addition, they stimulate us to carefully reassess our sociocultural understanding to mental illness.