Neuroimaging of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Can New Imaging Findings Be Integrated in Clinical Practice?
Recent advances in neuroimaging research have helped elucidate the neurobiology of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the mechanisms by which medications used to treat ADHD exert their effects. The complex nature and array of imaging techniques, however, present challenges for the busy clinician in assessing possible clinical uses of brain imaging. Even though currently there are no accepted uses for imaging in diagnosing ADHD (other than ruling out identifiable medical or neurologic conditions that may mimic ADHD), this review introduces the main imaging techniques used to study ADHD, identifies relevant complexities facing psychiatric researchers in implementing neuroimaging techniques for clinical purposes, and provides benchmarks to help determine when imaging modalities have advanced to a point that they are deemed clinically useful.
aDepartment of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA
bPsychiatric Neuroscience Division, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA
cMIT/HMS/MGH Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Functional and Structural Biomedical Imaging (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital), MGH–East, CNY 2614, Building 149, Thirteenth Street, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
dClinical and Research Program in Pediatric Psychopharmacology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
Massachusetts General Hospital-East, Psychiatric Neuroscience Program, MGH–East, CNY 2614, Building 149, Thirteenth Street, Charlestown, MA 02129.
This review was produced without direct support or compensation. Indirect support has been provided to the author for ADHD-related work within the past decade in the form of grant or general support by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, the Mental Illness and Neuroscience Discovery (MIND) Institute, the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), the Johnson and Johnson Center for the Study of Psychopathology, the Center for Functional Neuroimaging Technologies (P41RR14075), McNeil Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, and Eli Lilly and Company. The author has or has had in the past a relationship with one or more organizations listed as follows: former advisory board member and speaker's honoraria from Eli Lilly and Company and Novartis Pharmaceuticals; and has received speaker's honoraria from Shire U.S. Inc., Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, and McNeil Pharmaceuticals. The author does not now and has not at any time had a financial interest in any of these entities.
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