MRI: The feel-good modality

Could certain types of MRI exams confer an emotional pick-me-up to psychiatric patients? Such is the tantalizing implication of research we’re featuring this week in our MRI Digital Community.

According to the article by staff writer Tracie L. Thompson, researchers at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA, noticed a curious sense of well-being among bipolar patients who had received echo-planar MR spectroscopy (EP-MRSI) scans as part of a medication study. The effect wasn’t found on normal control patients or with other types of MRI scans.

Sound far-fetched? It might not be. These particular researchers are well-versed in the use of MRI for psychiatric patients -- they’ve conducted thousands of studies in the past without seeing any sort of mood-altering effect. In addition, magnetic fields generated by non-imaging devices are already being used to stimulate the brain and treat depressed psychiatric patients.

Could mood-altering MRI be the next wave of entrepreneurial medicine? Will pulse sequences replace Prozac? Find out for yourself in our MRI Digital Community, at mri.auntminnie.com.