Brain scans may detect markers of some mental disorders

Imaging could provide a biological basis for ADHD and bipolar disorder, but it is too soon to become a part of clinical practice.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Dec. 20, 2004.

In the early days of his career, John D. Port, MD, PhD, worked with a psychiatrist who suggested he go into radiology and develop tests to make it easier to pin down a diagnosis of mental illness.

"Psychiatry is really one of the last frontiers of medicine where you don't have a blood test," said Dr. Port, assistant professor of radiology and consultant at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Now, if his recent efforts pan out, the wish of his mentor and that of many physicians who work with mentally ill patients may be fulfilled -- at least in terms of bipolar disorder.

This diagnosis, in particular, can be tricky to nail down.

According to a patient advocacy group, the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, most people with bipolar disorder have symptoms for a decade and see an average of four doctors before being diagnosed.

Dr. Port and his research team used magnetic resonance spectroscopy to compare the brains of 19 bipolar disorder patients who were not on any medication to the brains of healthy controls.

According to study findings presented at last month's Radiological Society of North America annual meeting in Chicago, magnetic resonance spectroscopy detected striking differences in the metabolites of four areas of the brains of those with bipolar disorder.

Dr. Port suggested that these markers could eventually be used to diagnose the condition.

"The psychiatric community clearly needs a tool to help diagnose bipolar disorder," said Dr. Port.