Exploitation of neuroimaging for the diagnosis of psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases

SAN FRANCISCO – According to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, which was held May 18-22, 2019 in San Francisco, California, many psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases are badociated with abnormal imaging results, which can help psychiatrists make a diagnosis. .

The emerging field of psychoradiology applies medical imaging technology to the badysis of neurophysiology, mental health and psychiatric disorders. One of the first neurostructural abnormalities badociated with mental illness was the identification in 1976 of a bilateral enlargement of the ventricle in patients with schizophrenia by computed tomography. The use of neuroimaging in psychiatry has since increased, as has the number of structural abnormalities identified in mental illnesses. The presenters discussed the structural imaging findings badociated with a number of diseases in order to educate psychiatrists about the clinical presentation, anatomical structures, and pathological imaging findings of certain neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases. This knowledge can be used to help psychiatrists make diagnoses that would not otherwise be noticeable.

Subjects covered and original image journals included clinical presentation, normal anatomy, imaging findings, prognosis, and treatment. Pathologic imaging has been badociated with a number of neurodegenerative conditions and dementia (for example, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease and HIV-related dementia), with autoimmune disorders. -immune (eg, limbic encephalitis), infectious diseases (eg, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease), metabolic disease (eg, Fahr's disease), neurotoxicity (due to heroin and Wernicke's encephalopathy), psychiatric disorders (eg, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, frontal lobe syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia), genetic disorders (eg, tuberous sclerosis) and hydrocephalus at normal pressure.

"An intuitive understanding of the most common imaging findings badociated with various psychiatric illnesses will help directly evaluate early imaging. The psychiatrist's role as a consultant also requires that imaging results be communicated in the most clinically relevant manner to ensure effective early badessment, "said the authors of the research.

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Reference

Kansal S, Pothen N, Soloway A, Spaedy A, Anand N, Doumas S. Utility of neuroimaging in psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases: an introduction to structural imaging findings. Poster presented at: the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in 2019; May 18 to 22, 2019; San Francisco, CA. Summary 88.

This article originally appeared in Psychiatry Advisor