Direct Benefits For Clinicians

SPECT shows the function or dysfunction of specific brain regions implicated with specific problems, such as the prefrontal cortex with executive function and the medial temporal lobes with getting information into long term storage.

SPECT shows unexpected findings that may be contributing to the problem(s), such as toxicity, potential areas of seizure activity, or past brain trauma.

SPECT shows potential underlying seizure activity that may be contributing to the problem (often more accurately seen by SPECT than standard EEG, especially in the areas of the medial temporal lobes).

SPECT shows specific target areas for treatment, such as an overactive anterior cingulate gyrus (seen with OCD spectrum disorders) or an underactive temporal lobe (seen in seizure disorders and other disorders such as trauma).

SPECT shows the specific effect of medication on the brain and subsequently how to adjust dosages. Patients often report that SSRIs are helpful but also cause demotivation or memory problems. SPECT studies can show when SSRIs are causing excessive decreased prefrontal or temporal lobe activity that clinical evaluation only hints at.

SPECT scans helps provide real, demonstrable answers to refractory symptoms and, in addition, helps clinicians ask better and more targeted questions ““ about toxic exposure, brain injuries, anoxia, inflammation, or infection, that patients may have initially denied or forgotten.

SPECT scans help clinicians prevent mistakes or hurting patients by prescribing the wrong treatments, such as unnecessarily stimulating an already overactive brain or calming an underactive one.

SPECT scans help to evaluate those who may be at risk for dementia ““ the brain starts to change long before people show symptoms of dementia. One study reported that there has to be a loss of 30% in the hippocampus before symptoms occur. Using autopsy data in 54 patients Bonte reported that brain

SPECT had a positive predictive value for Alzheimer’s disease of 92%. SPECT scans can help differentiate between types of dementia.

SPECT scans can identify specific areas of the brain hurt by trauma to better target treatment and help deal with insurance, legal and rehabilitation issues.

SPECT scans can often identify a specific cause or reason that contributes to recovering alcoholics, drug addicts, eating disordered, or sexual addicts relapse behavior in their recovery from an addictive process. For example: the patient may have suffered an injury in the prefrontal cortex or temporal lobes or have overactivity in basal ganglia, limbic system, or prefrontal cortex, each of which could contribute to the relapsing behaviors.

SPECT, in many ways, is superior to other imaging technologies for the study of brain function related to mental illness and aberrant behaviors. As opposed to PET or fMRI, a SPECT scan’s image occurs while the patient is sitting upright in an injection room, not when he or she is lying in the camera. Within 2 minutes of injecting the radiopharmaceutical it locks in the brain where it stays fixed and measurable for up to 6 hours. The SPECT image occurs in a more normal mind-state (in the injection room), rather than while a person is in a PET scanning device or lying in an MRI tube listening to what sounds like machine gun fire ““ MRI tubes are noisy and can be frightening. PET requires 30 to 45 minutes to form an image of brain activity, whereas in SPECT the radioisotope is fully distributed within 2 or 3 minutes of injection. Because the image occurs at the time of injection outside the imaging camera, it gives SPECT several significant advantages. Most notably, if needed, we are able to sedate people after they have been injected so that they can lie still for the scan, and the sedation does not affect the image. Often hyperactive or autistic children or demented adults have difficulty lying still for the scan, which is essential for a high quality scan (motion artifact ruins the scan in all of these imaging techniques).