The value of single photon emission tomography in psychopharmacology

✍ Scribed by Dr John Moriarty

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 736 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6222
• DOI: 10.1002/hup.470090506

✦ Synopsis

Functional neuroimaging with SPET and PET offers the opportunity to visualize brain function either in terms of blood flow and metabolism or receptor function using specific ligands. SPET is a more widely available and cheaper technology than PET. Continuously developing and being refined, this technology will help the understanding of brain function generally and of brain dysfunction in psychiatric disorders specifically. SPET may also be used to study how these measures of brain function change with pharmacological intervention. Receptor imaging allows the study of drug-receptor interactions in vivo. As yet, the precise role and value of these techniques have not been established, but they do provide complementary tools to structural imaging and may ultimately provide prognostic information and facilitate refinement of the pharmacotherapeutic rationale underlying clinical practice.