((PKG))  BRAIN SCAN  

((Banner:  Inside the Brain))
((Reporter:  Carolyn Presutti)) 

((Camera:  Adam Greenbaum)) 
((Adapted by:  Zdenko Novacki))
((Map:  Reston, Virginia))
((DR. LANTIE JORANDBY, PSYCHIATRIST, AMEN CLINICS))
SPECT is a functional scan. It tells you what areas of the brain work well and what areas are underactive, what areas might be working too hard. If you had a CT scan or an X-ray or an MRI, those are just snapshots that are just like a quick picture of the anatomy, whether it be of the brain, or the arm, or the leg, and you have no good clear idea of how that part of that imaging or how that part of the body is working. A CT scan of someone who’s alive looks like the same CT scan if you do it on someone who’s dead. So that’s kind of a way to look at it, is the functional MRI, or the functional SPECT scan, tells you more about what is working well and what isn’t.
((NAT WITH NURSE WENDY))
My name is Wendy, and I will be doing your brain scans while you’re here at the Amen clinic. Today we’re going to do the concentration scan.
((PARWEEN NOORUDDIN, PATIENT))
I had a lot of issues that I was never properly diagnosed. I had seizures for a long time that randomly stopped when I came to the United States. So, I want to know if there is something wrong in my brain, and I’ve battled a lot of depression and anxiety growing up so I want to see. I was told I had a chemical imbalance. I was told a couple of different things. I’m kind of excited to see what it actually is.
((DR. LANTIE JORANDBY, PSYCHIATRIST, AMEN CLINICS))
We are one of the only fields that doesn’t actually look at the organ that we’re treating. Meaning, if you were to go to a cardiologist, they’re going to do an EKG or they’re going to do an image of your heart, they’re going to do an echo (cardiogram). And if you were to go a surgeon, they’re going to do an X-ray or a cat scan, but a psychiatrist never actually, most traditional psychiatrists do not look at the brain.
((PARWEEN NOORUDDIN, PATIENT))

I’ve been through so many tests in my life, and no one has ever been able to show me “Well, this is where the issue is” and how we can solve it.”

((DR. LANTIE JORANDBY, PSYCHIATRIST, AMEN CLINICS))
Some people have depression, have had a terrible brain injury that hasn’t been diagnosed. Some people with depression have been exposed to toxins or chemicals that haven’t been picked up yet.  You can see, this is what we’re looking at on the alpha of the brain. So, this is just the cortex. You can see each picture. It’s the same brain, just looking from different angles.
((PARWEEN NOORUDDIN, PATIENT))
I mean, I’m kind of a little bit overwhelmed, but also kind of happy that it kind of got validated, that it wasn’t all in my head, that the depression wasn’t something I made up. Like, as my siblings would like to think that I made up this whole, you know, depression thing. So, kind of validating it and also knowing that I wasn’t the only person. So, the fact that I have this route of going naturally is very, made me happy in a way, that I have other options versus “Well, your only option to survive is Zoloft”, you know, like how my doctor pretty much sold it to me when I was younger. That was pretty exciting and knowing that my other parts of my brain are healthy. I think I was nervous seeing what else I could have, the bumps and the holes, but I didn’t have any of that, so that was pretty interesting. And it’s interesting how they do it.
((DR. LANTIE JORANDBY, PSYCHIATRIST, AMEN CLINICS))
The academic field still sees it as kind of a research tool, rather than a clinical tool.