THE NEUROSCIENCES: NEW MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH TARGETS
Neuroscience research (brain and nervous system investigation) has been the underpinning, for the past few decades, of novel and advanced approaches to the diagnosis of and the treatment of psychiatric disorders.
Where, heretofore, notions about psychoses, depressive disorders, neuroses, personality disorders, and many other categories of psychiatric illnesses had been attributed to such, sometimes questionable, theoretical etiologies (causes) as “the schizophrenogenic mother,” “childhood neglect or abandonment,” “the alcoholic father,” “lax discipline in childhood,” “insufficient educational opportunities,” “poor mother-infant bonding,” “paucity of early mental stimulation,” “death of a parent in childhood,” “orphanage or foster care upbringing” – and to a myriad of other external environmental hypothesized etiologies (causative factors) – today, physiologic etiologies hold prominence in psychiatry.
Particularly those attributed to CNS (central nervous system – brain and spinal cord) anatomy
(structure)and physiology (function). And on both the macroscopic (visible) level – in search of structural brain anomalies (abnormal formations or diseased sites); and on the microscopic level – in search of cellular (of the cells) anomalies and neuronal biochemical (brain chemistry) activity that is deviant from the norm.
Many of the findings of past and current neuroscience research are the foundations for the pharmaceutical industry’s development of newer generation antipsychotic, antidepressant and anxiolytic (antianxiety) prescription drugs. And, because of these medications, evolved out of solid and ongoing neuroscience research, more psychiatrically diagnosed patients are enabled to live in the community, retaining their jobs and their social connections. All because the various neurochemical balancing effects of these drugs on their brains allows them to process reality more normally and to behave more adaptively.
However, this progress in psychotropic drug development does not mean that only drugs can positively alter neurochemistry, and thus improve feelings, thoughts and behaviors. Because there is now compelling evidence – via objective radiologic imaging procedures (such as PETT* and CAT* scans and MRIs*) of the brain – that PSYCHOTHERAPY, the much maligned “talking cure,” actually does alter brain anatomy and physiology for the better.
On PETT scans – where dyes are used so various brain areas can be imaged in varied colors and depths of color denoting levels of neurotransmitter (brain chemical messengers) activity that affects mood and other mental states – PSYCHOTHERAPY has been demonstrated to positively alter neurochemical reactions. And on MRI and CAT scans, brain anatomy has been shown to change in a positive structural manner when patients receive
“THE TALKING CURE.”
This discussion is only the tip of the iceberg of the surprising discoveries and more specifically-targeted therapies that psychiatric patients are currently benefiting from due to the exciting young field of NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH. I will be writing more on this very diverse and challenging subject soon.
*PETT Scan = Positron Emission Transaxial Tomography, an imaging procedure using dyes to
visualize how the brain utilizes certain substances, i.e., glucose
*CAT Scan = Computerized Axial Tomography, an imaging procedure that visualizes various
body structures, and possible anomalies, in this case by showing slices of the
brain incapable of being seen on ordinary brain x-rays
*MRI = Magnetic Resonance Imaging, yet another imaging procedure using specialized
equipment and computers to view anatomical parts
