Abstract

This paper offers a selective literature review of neuroimaging in psychiatry, with the goal of offering a background and a summary of
current trends. While not exhaustive, numerous publications are cited in an attempt to provide a reasonable cross-section of research activity in
the field of brain imaging in psychiatry and how to overcome the challenges in our setting. There are two different types of neuroimaging of value in clinical psychiatry, namely: structural neuroimaging techniques (e.g., CT, MRI) which provide static images of the skull, and brain, and functional neuroimaging techniques (e.g., single photon emission CT [SPECT], positron emission tomography [PET], functional MRI [fMRI],
electroencephalography [EEG], magnetoencephalography [MEG]) which provide measures that are directly (MEG, EEG) or indirectly (SPECT, PET, fMRI) related to brain activity. Although neuroimaging is making increasing contributions to multiple aspects of clinical psychiatry, including differential diagnosis, prognosis, clinical management, and development of new interventions, it still remains largely a research tool and is of limited use in clinical psychiatry.