Mental Health Imaging

Mental disorders such as depression and schizophrenia are among the leading causes of disability worldwide. Approximately 20% of Canadians personally experience a mental illness in their lifetime.  The cost of mental illness in Canada is estimated at $51 billion a year in health care and lost productivity. Despite considerable progress in the pharmacological treatment, our understanding of etiology and biological mechanisms of mental disorders remains limited. The existing treatments for mental disorders are only partly effective and there is no physical diagnostic test to confirm the diagnosis of mental disorders which are, at present based purely on behavioral criteria. Neuroimaging methods provide an opportunity for studying the brain mechanisms that underlie illness development, progression, treatment responsiveness and clinical recovery. Using structural and functional brain imaging technologies researchers in our centre are currently involved in studying the fundamental neural mechanisms that are disrupted by psychosis and depression.  The North American Prodromal Longitudinal Study (NAPLS) a multisite NIMH funded research aims to identify neural predictors and mechanisms of conversion of prodromal symptoms to psychosis.  The other imaging studies investigate the impairment of cognitive, emotional and social processing in depression, and schizophrenia and the role of brain markers in the prediction of depression treatment outcomes. The information generated from these studies may provide valuable clinical information regarding early diagnosis and effective management of psychosis and depression.

Investigators:

Jean Addington, PhD Vina Goghari, PhD Bradley Goodyear, PhD

Glenda MacQueen, MD Thomas Raedler, MD Raj Ramasubbu, MD

Key Publications:

Goghari VM, Rehm K, Carter CS, MacDonald AW. Sulcal thickness as a vulnerability indicator for schizophrenia. Br J Psychiatry 2007; 191: 229-33.

Reuter J, Raedler T, Rose M, Hand I, Gläscher J, Büchel C. Pathological gambling is linked to reduced activation of the mesolimbic reward system. Nat Neurosci 2005; 8: 147-8.

Ramasubbu R, Goodyear BG. Methylphenidate modulates activity within cognitive neural networks of patients with post-stroke major depression: A placebo-controlled fMRI study. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat 2008; 4:1251-66.

Hawkins KA, Keefe RS, Christensen BK, Addington J, Woods SW, Callahan J, Zipursky RB, Perkins DO, Tohen M, Breier A, McGlashan TH. Neuropsychological course in the prodrome and first episode of psychosis: findings from the PRIME North America Double Blind Treatment Study. Schizophr Res 2008; 105: 1-9.

Seidman LJ, Giuliano AJ, Meyer EC, Addington J, Cadenhead KS, Cannon TD, McGlashan TH, Perkins DO, Tsuang MT, Walker EF, Woods SW, Bearden CE, Christensen BK, Hawkins K, Heaton R, Keefe RS, Heinssen R, Cornblatt BA; North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study (NAPLS) Group. Neuropsychology of the prodrome to psychosis in the NAPLS consortium: relationship to family history and conversion to psychosis. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2010; 67: 578-88.

Ramasubbu R, MacQueen G. Using Neuroimaging to Predict Outcome in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder. Mind & Brain, the Journal of Psychiatry 2010; 1: 59-68.