Functional brain imaging and the longitudinal changes of depressive states in major psychiatric disorders

该研究的主要优势包括在临床实践中应用神经成像生物标志物，使临床有用的鉴别诊断、症状评估和预后预测成为可能。我们的一些研究提供了证据，表明额颞部近红外光谱信号可能被用作辅助诊断主要精神疾病和评估症状的工具。目前的研究表明，这种方法在确定是否需要治疗、评估各种治疗的疗效以及建立预后预测方面具有潜在的适用性。在临床医生、患者和他们的看护人员第一次就诊时提供这样一份全面的可视化报告，同时制定未来的治疗计划，可能会导致临床精神病学向以患者为中心的方法转变。

The main strengths of the study include the application of a neuroimaging biomarker in clinical practice that allows the clinically useful differential diagnosis, the assessment of symptoms, and the prognostic predictions. Some of our studies provided evidence that the fronto-temporal NIRS signal may be used as a tool in assisting the diagnosis of major psychiatric disorders and the assessment of symptoms. The current studies have shown the potential applicability of this method to the identification of a need for therapy, the assessment of the efficacy of various treatments, and the establishment of prognostic predictions. The availability of such a comprehensively visualized report to clinicians, patients and their caretakers at a first visit, while laying out a future treatment plan, would likely lead to a paradigm shift to a patient-centered approach in clinical psychiatry.