"Interestingly, patients' response to two different classes of antidepressant medicines that target different neurotransmitters is associated with a similar improvement in cerebral blood flow," he noted. "However, cerebral blood flow continued to deteriorate in patients who responded to electroconvulsive therapy," added Bonne, who helped implement functional brain imaging research in psychiatry at Hadassah. Israeli researchers studied 33 depressed patients and 25 healthy control subjects with SPECT and the radiotracer 99mTc-HMPAO.

"Our findings may aid in elucidating the mechanism of depression and its treatment," said Bonne. "There may be more than one mechanism responsible for the development of depression and for mediating response to its treatment," he added. Additional research could examine whether it's possible to use functional imaging techniques to determine which patients would benefit from drug treatment and which would respond better to electroconvulsive therapy, explained Bonne. Future research should also examine the differences in brain blood flow in patients at later time points, he said.


"99mTc-HMPAO SPECT Study of Cerebral Perfusion After Treatment With Medication and Electroconvulsive Therapy in Major Depression" appears in the August issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, which is published by SNM, the world's largest molecular imaging and nuclear medicine society. Co-authors include Yoav Kohn and Bernard Lerer, Department of Psychiatry, and Nanette Freedman, Hava Lester, Yodphat Krausz and Roland Chisin, Department of Medical Biophysics and Nuclear Medicine, at Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel.

Media representatives: To obtain a copy of this article, please contact Maryann Verrillo by phone at (703) 652-6773 or send an e-mail to mverrillo@snm.org. Current and past issues of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine can be found online at http://jnm.snmjournals.org. Print copies can be obtained by contacting the SNM Service Center, 1850 Samuel Morse Drive, Reston, VA 20190-5316; phone (800) 513-6853; e-mail servicecenter@snm.org; fax (703) 708-9015. A subscription to the journal is an SNM member benefit.

About SNM-Advancing Molecular Imaging and Therapy
SNM is an international scientific and professional organization of more than 16,000 members dedicated to promoting the science, technology and practical applications of molecular and nuclear imaging to diagnose, manage and treat diseases in women, men and children. Founded more than 50 years ago, SNM continues to provide essential resources for health care practitioners and patients; publish the most prominent peer-reviewed journal in the field (the Journal of Nuclear Medicine); host the premier annual meeting for medical imaging; sponsor research grants, fellowships and awards; and train physicians, technologists, scientists, physicists, chemists and radiopharmacists in state-of-the-art imaging procedures and advances. SNM members have introduced-and continue to explore-biological and technological innovations in medicine that noninvasively investigate the molecular basis of diseases, benefiting countless generations of patients. SNM is based in Reston, Va.; additional information can be found online at http://www.snm.org.

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