Ruminations

Health Diagnostic Technology

"Dopamine is an important marker for a lot of psychiatric conditions, but it’s been difficult in the past to measure it without PET imaging."
"With NM-MRI, we can understand some of the same things that PET tells us, but in a much more practical and accessible way."
"A clinical biomarker for schizophrenia would help people to get the treatment they need faster, and hopefully lead to an improved quality of life."
"In mental health care, we still don’t have widely available diagnostic tests for mental disorders. This means that psychiatrists still have to rely on a patient’s description of symptoms, and clinical behavioural observations in order to make an accurate diagnosis, which can sometimes mean significant trial and error."
Dr. Clifford Cassidy, scientist, The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa

Dr. Clifford Cassidy, a scientist at The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research is part of a research team that has discovered a potentially ground-breaking new way to diagnose and treat schizophrenia

New research from The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre has produced a study revealing a biomarker based in the brain, for schizophrenia identifiable with the use of specially configured MRI machines. The study, co-authored by Clifford Cassidy, offers a look at an accurate, quick diagnostic tool to diagnose whether people have schizophrenia, a diagnosis that has always been reliant on assessment by psychiatrists of an individual's behaviour and symptom descriptions. Such a readily available diagnostic test as described by the new study could result in a reliable diagnostic tool used is an improved strategy for early intervention and prevention.

Approximately one percent of any given population can be diagnosed with schizophrenia. The sooner the diagnosis is made and remedial intervention taken, the better the afflicted individual will be able to adjust to a protocol strategy that will enable him/her to successfully cope and to lead a fairly normal life. The new diagnosis technique with the use of specialty MRIs will extend beyond schizophrenia to encompass other mental health problems, such as PTSD. The very same technique outlined in the research has proven effective in detecting neurodegeneration in patients with Parkinson's disease; using it for patients with schizophrenia is a first.

The study was conducted to widen the scope of usefulness in diagnosis of a type of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging machine) called neuromelanin-sensitive, which has the capacity to indirectly measure dopamine function in patients. The brain chemical dopamine aids in regulating movement, learning, emotional response and attention. In the brains of people at risk of developing schizophrenia, or those experiencing some type of psychosis, excess dopamine is released. These specialty MRIs are able to indirectly measure that excess dopamine is being produced by targeting neuromelanin, a pigment created when dopamine breaks down. MRI scans detect the presence of the dark pigment.

The study identifies the MRI and its process as a reliable method to measure dopamine; a psychosis biomarker, in other words. Dr. Cassidy spoke of the satisfaction felt by researchers in achieving this breakthrough and the potential for it to lead to additional applications in the future, paving the way to diagnose psychosis and schizophrenia in a more 'accessible' manner in the sense that PET-CT scans also can measure the presence of excess dopamine, but PET-CT scans are expensive, not readily accessed and can often become an invasive technique.

The tool, stated Dr. Cassidy, could be useful for additional applications as for example diagnosing PTSD for which a different brain chemical -- noradrenaline -- has been associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. This chemical as well is pigmented and can be 'seen', to be measured through the use of specialized MRIs. There is an existing gap between individuals with mental illness and the problems they face versus the technological challenges of understanding brain function. And the hope is that the work undertaken in this study could lead to improved strategies for intervention and prevention of mental health diseases.