In counterpoint to the Time magazine article I just posted, this NYT article describes the slow rate of progress in making brain imaging useful for psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. Here are some excerpts:
"I think that, with some notable exceptions, the community of scientists was excessively optimistic about how quickly imaging would have an impact on psychiatry," said Dr. Steven Hyman, a professor of neurobiology at Harvard and the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health. "In their enthusiasm, people forgot that the human brain is the most complex object in the history of human inquiry, and it's not at all easy to see what's going wrong." . . .
Most fundamentally, imaging research has not answered the underlying question that the technology itself has raised: which comes first, the disease or the apparent difference in brain structure or function that is being observed?
The article goes on to mention a particular instance where a promising experimental treatment was developed though brain imaging. It also describes some controversy over practitioners who are using brain imaging in day-to-day clinical treatment for psychiatric conditions like ADHD:
Many people would rather not wait for the science of imaging to mature, however. At clinics in California, Washington, Illinois, Texas and elsewhere, doctors offer brain scans to people with a variety of conditions, from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, often called A.D.H.D., to depression and aggressive behavior.
Dr. Daniel Amen, an adult and child psychiatrist based in Newport Beach, Calif., said he performed 28,000 scans on adults and children over the past 14 years, using a technique called Spect, or single photon emission computed tomography.
In an interview, Dr. Amen said that it was unconscionable that the profession of psychiatry was not making more use of brain scans. "Here we are, giving five or six different medications to children without even looking at the organ we're changing," he said.
However, "[T]he experts who study imaging and psychiatry say there is no evidence that a brain scan, which can cost more than $1,000, adds significantly to standard individual psychiatric exams."
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