Title:The Value of Neuroimaging Techniques in the Translation and Transdiagnostic Validation of Psychiatric Diagnoses - Selective Review
Volume: 20
Issue: 7
Author(s): Anna Todeva-Radneva*, Rositsa Paunova, Sevdalina Kandilarova and Drozdstoy St. Stoyanov
Affiliation:
- Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology and Scientific Research Institute, The Medical University of Plovdiv, Plovdiv,Bulgaria
Keywords:
Translation, fMRI, Psychiatry, Neuroimaging, Trans-diagnostic validation, Biomarkers.
Abstract:
Psychiatric diagnosis has long been perceived as more of an art than a science since its foundations
lie within the observation, and the self-report of the patients themselves and objective diagnostic
biomarkers are lacking. Furthermore, the diagnostic tools in use not only stray away from the conventional
medical framework but also remain invalidated with evidence-based concepts. However, neuroscience,
as a source of valid objective knowledge has initiated the process of a paradigm shift underlined by
the main concept of psychiatric disorders being “brain disorders”. It is also a bridge closing the explanatory
gap among the different fields of medicine via the translation of the knowledge within a multidisciplinary
framework.
The contemporary neuroimaging methods, such as fMRI provide researchers with an entirely new set of
tools to reform the current status quo by creating an opportunity to define and validate objective biomarkers
that can be translated into clinical practice. Combining multiple neuroimaging techniques with
the knowledge of the role of genetic factors, neurochemical imbalance and neuroinflammatory processes
in the etiopathophysiology of psychiatric disorders is a step towards a comprehensive biological explanation
of psychiatric disorders and a final differentiation of psychiatry as a well-founded medical science.
In addition, the neuroscientific knowledge gained thus far suggests a necessity for directional change to
exploring multidisciplinary concepts, such as multiple causality and dimensionality of psychiatric symptoms
and disorders. A concomitant viewpoint transition of the notion of validity in psychiatry with a
focus on an integrative validatory approach may facilitate the building of a collaborative bridge above the
wall existing between the scientific fields analyzing the mind and those studying the brain.
