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Clinical neuroimaging in psychiatry
1Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., USA.
Harvard Review of Psychiatry
|March 1, 1995
Summary
This review covers neuroimaging techniques for clinical psychiatry. Structural imaging like CT and MRI help rule out medical causes, while functional methods like PET, SPECT, and fMRI aid in evaluating disorders.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Clinical Psychiatry
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Neuroimaging is crucial for understanding brain function and structure.
- Clinical psychiatry increasingly utilizes advanced imaging for diagnosis and research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review practical aspects of contemporary neuroimaging techniques in clinical psychiatry.
- To compare structural and functional neuroimaging modalities.
- To provide guidelines for the use of neuroimaging studies.
Main Methods:
- Review of structural imaging: Computed Axial Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
- Review of functional neuroimaging: Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS).
Main Results:
- Structural imaging (CT, MRI) is primarily used to exclude medical causes of psychiatric symptoms.
- Functional imaging (PET, SPECT, fMRI, MRS) plays an adjunctive role in evaluating dementia and seizure disorders.
- Functional neuroimaging shows future promise for diagnosing primary psychiatric disorders.
Conclusions:
- Neuroimaging techniques offer valuable tools for psychiatric practice.
- Guidelines are proposed for the appropriate application of these techniques.
- Future research directions for neuroimaging in psychiatry are highlighted.