Posted by OldSchool on March 21, 2002, at 13:03:22
The January 2002 issue of "Prevention" magazine has an interesting list of 37
new medical breakthroughs. Among these medical breakthroughs is functional
neuroimaging...high tech brain scans that are yielding the secrets of severe
mental illness.>Mind Reading
Neuroimaging Offers Pictures of a Troubled BrainIn the past 5 years, an explosion of technological breakthroughs in
neuroimaging--using a variety of high-tech imaging devices to peek inside the
brain--has given researchers their first glimpse of what depression, anxiety
and even schizophrenia look like at the cellular level. This could lead to more
effective treatments for these debilitating mental illnesses.
"Now we have the ability to see small details in the brain," explains Nancy
Andreasen, MD, PhD, the researcher at the University of Iowa in Iowa City who
won the President's National Medal of Science in 2000 for her groundbreaking
discoveries in understanding the causes of schizophrenia, a serious psychotic
disorder. "We can see the mind think and feel. And we've been able to map the
circuitry and physiology of a healthy working brain," enabling doctors to
compare it with that of someone with a brain disorder and figure out what's not
working right.
As a result of neuroimaging, researchers across the USA are developing new
treatments for depression, anxiety and other brain disorders that will be
available in the next few months and years. Even schizophrenia, arguably
psychiatry's toughest challenge, is finally yielding up its secrets, thanks to
Dr. Andreasen's work.
"Imaging has allowed us to understand that schizophrenia is not located in
a single brain region as was previously thought," explains Dr. Andreasen, who
was recently nominated for a Pulitzer prize for her book "Brave New Brain:
Conquering Mental Illness in the Era of the Genome (Oxford University Press,
2001). "Instead, its a consequence of miscommunications between regions and
networks in different parts of the brain. Knowing that changes how we think
about this disorder."
This year, she has been asked to head a SWAT team of scientists to develop
the first brain research institute in the US primarily devoted to using
neuroimaging research techniques for studying mental illness.Old School
poster:OldSchool
thread:99224
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020318/msgs/99224.html