A consideration of the role of neuroimaging in clinical practice falls in the realm of discussions of personalized medicine. In reference to clinical psychiatry, personalized medicine can be simply conceptualized as falling into 3 domains: the study of genetic variation (including pharmacogenetics), the measurement of various molecular or biochemical indices of disease states (possibly including metabolomics or proteomics) and neuroimaging methods. Each of these approaches are being explored for their potential to improve the accuracy of diagnosis, but they may have a more immediate and prominent role in predicting outcomes or in matching patients with most appropriate treatment strategies. In fact, in a 2009 strategic plan for the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), Insel included personalized care based on individual responses as a priority area for research, identifying a need for basic science research to enable the development of effective care. For any of these approaches to be incorporated into clinical practice, however, there must be advances in science, clinical practice and policy.
展开▼
