Psychiatric Imaging Technology

Editor in Chief: Su Lv, Xiaoqi Huang

Press: People’s Medical Publishing House

Publication Time: 2020-06

Preface:

The development of modern medicine is inseparable from medical imaging technology. Thanks to the discovery of X-rays, doctors can clearly observe the internal structure of the human body without using a scalpel, paving a revolutionary new way for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. From X-rays to computed tomography (CT) and then to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), making clinical diagnoses through objective imaging features has become a part of daily clinical work. The goal of generation after generation of imaging workers is to more accurately, clearly, and safely display human tissues and lesions, providing a more objective medical decision for the clinic.

However, the diagnosis of mental disorders still depends on the descriptions of patients and their families, and evaluations are made based on the degree of correspondence with the main symptoms and diagnostic guidelines, which requires high standard of clinical doctors. How to transfer the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders from empiricism to evidence-based medicine? Where is the scalpel for observing mental disorders? Psychiatric imaging technology is the "scalpel" that can observe changes in brain structure and function through imaging technology. Psychiatric imaging technology is a new branch of medical imaging technology, aiming to objectively, qualitatively and quantitatively analyze changes in brain structure and function caused by psychological activities or mental disorders through brain structure magnetic resonance and functional magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, and other medical imaging technologies.

The expert team of this book, based on the clinical advantages of West China Hospital of Sichuan University and the Huaxi Magnetic Resonance Research Center established by the interdisciplinary team, has long been committed to research in psychiatric imaging. In the burgeoning development of the past decade, the team has laid a solid foundation for studying the brain imaging characteristics of a series of major mental disorders. In the previously published book Psychoradiology, the team mainly introduced and summarized the relevant work published in international journals in the medical field by the team and the latest achievements in psychiatric imaging research on common mental disorders at home and abroad. This book focuses on the introduction and practical operation of psychiatric imaging technology.

This book provides detailed information on the equipment requirements, imaging principles, magnetic resonance imaging sequence data collection, quality control, data preprocessing and analysis, and clinical applications of psychiatric imaging technology in actual operations. The collection of clinical symptoms and neuropsychological data is also an important part of psychiatric imaging research. The last chapter of this book provides a brief introduction to the clinical evaluation methods needed for psychiatric imaging.

We hope the publication of this book can provide new insights for researchers and clinicians engaged in the direction related to mental disorders in exploring the neuropathological mechanism of mental disorders, and provide new methods and directions for the final realization of objective diagnosis, efficacy predicti on and follow-up after treatment of mental disorders.