Regional cerebral blood flow imaging with SPECT in psychiatric disease: focus on schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse.

In psychiatric disorders where gross brain structure is preserved, as confirmed through computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, neuroSPECT imaging provides further diagnostic insight by demonstrating abnormal brain function related to disturbances in perfusion or metabolism. This paper will focus on how the psychiatrist may incorporate SPECT brain imaging into the diagnostic process for schizophrenia, where frontal lobe hypoperfusion and hypometabolism have been demonstrated; for obsessive compulsive disorder, which has been linked to abnormalities in the basal ganglia, anterior cingulate gyrus, and orbital frontal cortex; and for substance abuse, where use of cocaine can be associated with cortical and subcortical perfusion defects.