Neuroimaging in Psychiatry: A Review of the Background and Current Trends

Abstract

This paper offers a selective literature review of neuroimaging in psychiatry, with the goal of offering a background and a summary of current trends. While not exhaustive, numerous publications are cited in an attempt to provide a reasonable cross-section of research activity in the field of brain imaging in psychiatry and  how to overcome the challenges in our setting. There are two different types of neuroimaging of value in  clinical psychiatry, namely: structural neuroimaging  techniques (e.g., CT, MRI) which provide static images of the skull, and brain, and funnctional neuroimaging techniques (e.g., single photon emission CT [SPECT],  positron emission tomography [PET], functional MRI [fMRI], electroencephalography [EEG],   magnetoencephalography [MEG]) which provide measures that are  directly (MEG, EEG) or indirectly (SPECT, PET, fMRI) related to brain activity. Although neuroimaging is making increasing contributions to mul t iple aspects of clinical psychiatry, including differential diagnosis, prognosis, clinical management, and   development of new interventions, it still remains largely a research tool and is of limited use in clinical psychiatry.