The Future Of Brain Scans For Depression Treatment
Brain scans that show what type of depression a person has can also help inform the best style of treatment. Brain scans can separate clients who will likely respond well to medications from those who will respond better to therapy.
In some cases, brain scans can even pinpoint what kinds of medications will be most beneficial to a persons depression. People with frontal cortex issues tend to do well with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, while those with dysfunction in other regions of the brain may respond to a medication that interacts with another brain chemical.
With brain scans, the future of depression treatment looks brighter. Unfortunately, these diagnostic tools remain very expensive, so the average person seeking help will probably not be able to undergo a brain scan for depression treatment.
If you know someone who has been using alcohol and other drugs as a way of coping with depression, they may need professional addiction treatment from a reputable facility like The Recovery Village. Our center provides evidence-based care for co-occurring addiction and depression. Reach out to a representative today for more information.
Other Types Of Dementia
Alzheimers is not the only type of dementia. Other types of dementia affect the brain in slightly different ways.
For example, fronto-temporal dementia affects the frontal or temporal lobes of the brain. This initially affects behavior, speech, or both. As the disease progresses, it may look more like Alzheimers, causing memory loss and other forms of brain dysfunction.
To differentiate Alzheimers from other dementias, a doctor may look at a combination of symptoms and brain changes.
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Brain scan studies also reveal that anxiety can hijack the brains thinking and decision-making processes by suppressing prefrontal cortex neuron activity. The PFC is the newest of brain areas in terms of evolution. It plays a key role in whats called executive functions: assessing risk vs. reward potentials, managing emotions. These findings have implications in understanding both depression to prognosis and its role as a risk factor for dementia. Deficits in Regional Cerebral Blood Flow on Brain SPECT Predict Treatment Resistant Depression J Alzheimers Dis. 2018 63 :529-538. … Such differences were observed on both resting and concentration SPECT scans. Mental illness is sometimes looked at as a character weakness or something a person just has to “shake off.” New research using magnetic resonance imaging of the brain shows that there is a specific pattern of structural anomalies in the brain tissue of patients who have a diagnosis of depression and social anxiety.
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The researchers measured resting brain activity in 63 patients suffering from depression using a brain scanning technique called positron emission tomography . PET measures how much glucosebrain fuelvarious regions of the brain are consuming as a proxy to measure which areas are most active. After the scans, patients either received.
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Structural Mri For The Assessment Of Mdd
Structural MRI provides anatomical information about structures in the brain and reveals how the structures are affected by different diseases. Structural brain alterations have been associated with MDD and many other neurological disorders. Some structural alterations are involved in the etiology of a disease, while others may result from the disease.
Despite the growing number of MRI studies in MDD, the clinical impact of these findings has been hindered, in part, by the heterogeneity of findings, which may include both imaging- and study-related differences. For example, imaging-related factors that commonly differ between studies include scanner strength, slice thickness, imaging sequences, and image post-processing procedures. In terms of study-related differences, group-specific definitions of healthy controls, disease classification , and statistical methods can also vary between studies and can strongly impact the conclusions. In return, it can be challenging to compare the findings from different MRI studies in the literature. Despite these limitations, many important findings from the past thirty years of studies have supported the development of diagnostics and treatments still in use in the clinic today.
Structural Brain Alterations Associated With Mdd
Structural MRI is used to assess anatomical alterations in the brain, which are commonly denoted as volume differences. The common and distinct structural brain alterations associated with MDD are shown in Table . Many of the structural alterations associated with MDD are also associated with other psychiatric disorders.
Table 1 List of structural brain alternations associated with MDD with the respective outcomes, related conditions, and frequency.
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Susceptibility To Physical Health Issues And Illness
Stress hormones make your heart beat faster as if youre constantly in danger. Because your heart isnt meant to beat at high speeds for extended periods, this could lead to a life-threatening heart illness in the future.
Depression also impacts your digestive systems health, especially if you binge eat or take antidepressant medications. If you rapidly gain weight during a depressive episode, youre more likely to develop diseases closely tied to obesity, like diabetes. Conversely, depression may also cause someone to lose their appetite for food and experience rapid weight loss, which can be equally harmful to the body.
Some people may use drugs or alcohol as a way to deal with their symptoms of depression, leading to substance use disorders. In some cases, this substance abuse issue can develop into life-threatening addictions.
A Depressed Vs Normal Brain
Depression is a mood disorder that impacts the way we feel, think, and behave. People who struggle with depression experience the symptoms such as persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, weight change, sleep problems, feelings of guilt and worthlessness, difficulty in thinking, concentrating, and making decisions, fatigue, restlessness, etc.
However, PET scans show that depression affects the brain. By comparing brain activity during periods of depression with regular brain activity, PET scans show decreased brain activity due to depression. The scientific findings suggest that three parts of the brain may play a role in depression: the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex.
The subtle but significant differences between a healthy brain and a depressed brain involve brain shrinkage, grey matter abnormalities, and increased amygdala activity in depressed brains.
How Does Depression Physically Affect the Brain?
Here are the keydifferences between a normal brain versus a depressed brain.
Brain Shrinkage
Research shows that depression can cause the shrinkage of specific brain regions. According to scientists, people with depression release larger amounts of cortisol, the stress hormone in the brain, than those who don’t experience depression. Our bodies release cortisol during times of mental and physical stress, which is typical for depression.
Grey Matter Abnormalities
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An Increased Activity of the Amygdala
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Sleep Disturbances And Emotional Issues
The cortisol influx caused by depression can cause your amygdala to enlarge, increasing its activity. Since it helps control your emotions, damage to your amygdala can throw your emotions off balance. You may experience uncontrollable mood fluctuations as a result, causing you to experience both negative and positive emotions very intensely.
An enlarged amygdala doesnt just impede your emotional health and your mood stability its increased activity can also cause other issues, like sleep issues and disturbances. Sleep deprivation, in turn, can worsen your overreactions to stimuli. Poor sleep also causes you to develop a more negative mood and mindset, which can cause your depression to worsen.
Since this creates a feedback loop, issues with your amygdala can be one of the most dangerous things about major depressive disorder.
Traumatic Brain Injury: Bjorns Surfing Incident
A horrible surfing accident left pro surfer Bjorn Hazelquist with intense headaches and vision problems. However, the CT scans of his brain showed no sign of any lasting problem. Bjorn knew in his heart that there was something wrong, and a SPECT scan at Amen Clinics finally confirmed his suspicions: the accident had restricted the blood flow to areas in his brain. Armed with a new, tailored treatment plan, including hyperbaric oxygen therapy and neurofeedback, Bjorn was able to eliminate his headaches and regain control of his life. He founded the Strength in Pain Foundation and now speaks out to assist others who are suffering from the effects of traumatic brain injuries and the importance of SPECT imaging. As Bjorn says, If I didnt have a SPECT scan, I would have never known I had a traumatic brain injury.
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The Wave Of The Future
David Feifel, MD, director of the Kadima Neuropsychiatry Institute in La Jolla, California, told Healthline that MRI and other forms of brain imaging are widely viewed as playing a major role in the future of psychiatry in the diagnosing of major depression and picking out the right treatment for patients.
However, right now its biggest utility is to help us understand the parts of the brain that arent functioning the right way in people with depression, he said.
Some imaging studies have preliminarily associated certain patterns of change with more optimal forms of treatment, Feifel says.
But he cautioned: People get deceived by some psychiatrists who tell them that they can take an image of their brain and tell them what disease they have and what medications they need. I dont think anyone doubts that will be true in the not so distant future, but it isnt true now.
Imaging has driven major advances in the understanding of how depression affects the brain, Ben Spielberg, the founder and CEO of TMS and Brain Health, a treatment program in Santa Monica, California, told Healthline.
PET scans were the first to show in the prefrontal cortex among people with depression. Later, MRIs revealed that people with depression had a hippocampus volume 10 percent lower than people who didnt have depression.
Thats a pretty substantial impairment, Spielberg said.
Brain Scan May Predict Best Depression Treatment
A brain imaging technique may help predict whether people with major depression will respond best to treatment with psychotherapy or a commonly prescribed drug. The approach might eventually be used as a tool to identify treatments that are most likely to succeed.
People with major depressive disorder, or major depression, have feelings of sadness, loss, anger or frustration that interfere with daily life for weeks or longer. Symptoms can also include memory loss and trouble focusing.
Major depression is most commonly treated with medication, psychotherapy or a combination. Unfortunately, less than 40% of patients typically respond well to initial treatment. They may need to try several treatments over many weeks or months before finally getting symptom relief.
A team led by Callie L. McGrath and Dr. Helen S. Mayberg at Emory University looked for a biological marker or biomarker that could predict whether patients with depression would respond best to medication or psychotherapy. The study was funded by NIHs National Institute of Mental Health and National Institute of General Medical Sciences . Results appeared online on June 12, 2013, in JAMA Psychiatry.
Success rates were similar for both treatments: about 36% for psychotherapy and 40% for escitalopram. The rates of those who didnt respond were also similar: about 27% for psychotherapy and 20% for escitalopram.
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Depressed Brain Vs Normal Brain Scan
Neuroimaging continues to become more advanced as time progresses. At first, researchers only had access to static images from X-rays, CT scans or MRIs to compare one brain to another. Now, experts can obtain data from PET scans, SPECT scans and functional MRI scans. These tests not only show the structure of the brain, but can also reveal how the brain functions in real-time.
Researchers find that significant differences exist between a depressed brain and a neurotypical brain through functional brain scans. Rather than only focusing on the two regions that appear differently with static images, these functional images show additional variations in the:
- Prefrontal cortex
Scans have demonstrated that the functioning in the above areas is different in people with depression when compared to people without depression. Sometimes, the regions show overactivity, while they are underactive in other samples. These segments of the brain work in harmony, so if one area is not performing well, depression may present.
Regions Of The Brain Affected By Anxiety
The areas of the brain affected by anxiety the most include the prefrontal cortex, occipital cortex and temporal cortex. Additionally, the insula and anterior cingulate cortex have also been linked to anxiety. Regions of the limbic system are also affected, which includes the amygdala and thalamus.
The amygdala and anxiety are also closely linked. The amygdala is largely known for its role in fear and anxiety-like behaviors in rodent studies of the brain and behavior. However, its not just rodents that use their amygdala during fearful and anxious behaviors humans also use their amygdala in a similar way. Overactivity in this brain region is associated with more fear and more anxiety.
The anterior cingulate and insula are also a part of a fear network in the brain. They have been shown to be critical in the learning and extinguishing of fear responses. Fear responses are extinguished when fear-inducing stimuli create weaker responses over time due to repeated exposure.
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How Brain Scans Can Benefit The Mental Health Diagnosis Process
Images of your brain can give your doctor incredible insight into your mental health. Usually, doctors use your symptoms and their medical opinion to diagnose mental health conditions. Brain scans can help improve that process. Some of the benefits brain scans can provide include:
- Identifying lesions in the frontal or temporal lobes and the thalamus and hypothalamus. Brain lesions can cause a number of psychiatric disorders like anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and anorexia as well as cognitive dysfunction. Brain scan images pinpointing the exact location of these lesions can help confirm specific mental illnesses.
- Distinguishing the difference between mental illness, neurodegenerative disorders, and brain tumors. A tumor in the frontal lobe can cause apathy, which doctors can easily mistake as a symptom of depression. The images produced by brain scans help doctors get a detailed look inside your brain, helping them distinguish between symptoms caused by tumors, mental illness, and neurodegenerative disorders like dementia or Alzheimers disease.
- Showing that the volume of various brain regions decreases during a psychotic episode. Usually, during a psychotic episode, the brain is in a state of stress overload. An influx of stress hormones causes other regions of the brain to shrink in size. Brain scans, especially fMRIs, help locate the exact part of the brain thats affected which can help doctors confirm a suggested mental health diagnosis.
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These findings have implications in understanding both depression to prognosis and its role as a risk factor for dementia. Deficits in Regional Cerebral Blood Flow on Brain SPECT Predict Treatment Resistant Depression J Alzheimers Dis. 2018 63 :529-538. … Such differences were observed on both resting and concentration SPECT scans. . Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report: APA. Thomas, Liji. . Depression treatment using AI, brain scans.
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These findings have implications in understanding both depression to prognosis and its role as a risk factor for dementia. Deficits in Regional Cerebral Blood Flow on Brain SPECT Predict Treatment Resistant Depression J Alzheimers Dis. 2018 63 :529-538. … Such differences were observed on both resting and concentration SPECT scans.
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What Does The Anxious Brain Look Like
Numerous neuroimaging studies have attempted to find out what anxiety looks like in the brain.
There is a strong link between anxiety and dysfunction of the brains frontal lobe. In one study that used CT scans, damage to several subregions of the frontal lobe was associated with anxiety. Another study using MRI technology showed that social anxiety disorder was linked to thinning grey matter in cortical regions. Grey matter changes have also been observed using MRI scanners in the prefrontal cortex of maltreated, anxious children.
As found during functional MRI scanning, the anxious brain also has a decreased connectivity network in key brain pathways specifically, in a structure called the amygdala. An earlier study in patients with a generalized anxiety disorder had similar results. Specifically, the study found that the amygdala was communicating less with the cortex. Additionally, the amygdala also had more connections within itself.
Are Brain Scans For Depression Commonly Used
Currently, the approach of using a brain scan for depression diagnosis and treatment is still in the early phases of development. Trials are underway and researchers around the world have started to investigate it as a potential option for treating certain types of depression.
However, brain scanning isnt yet a reliable approach for diagnosing depression or identifying a potentially effective form of treatment.
One reason for this is that we simply dont have enough data yet to reach any firm conclusions about what brain imaging results truly mean. Many current studies are small in scale, and data is limited in both quantity and quality.
As a recent article in the journal Nature put it, brain-wide association studies, or BWAS, require samples with thousands of individuals in order to produce meaningful results.
Until these large studies are available, its difficult for experts in mental health to use brain scan technology to personalize depression treatment or improve treatment outcomes.
In other words, research into brain scanning is still ongoing, and it might be some time before a quick scan of your brain is all it takes to identify the optimal medication, therapeutic approach or other form of treatment for your depression symptoms.
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Why Choose Amen Clinics For Brain Spect Imaging
Over the past 30 years at Amen Clinics, we have built the worlds largest database of brain scansover 200,000 scans and growingrelated to emotional, learning, and behavioral problems. We have scanned people across the globe from 9 months old to 105 years old and have been helped them with a wide variety of mental health conditions and other cognitive issues. Our decades of experience, in addition to our scientific research on SPECT , guides us in being the best in the world for brain SPECT imaging.