The procedure marked the first report of imaging regional serotonin responses in a live human brain. We recently applied this methodology to depressed patients, predicting that they would have an impaired prefrontal cortical response to serotonin release. Prefrontal brain response was reduced indeed in all depressed patients compared with normal subjects. This study provides the first visualization of the serotonin deficiency hypothesis of depression, which was originally proposed in 1965. We are now conducting brain-imaging and genetic studies on depressed patients who made serious suicide attempts.
Much work still needs to be done.
Research of this kind will improve detection of high risk patients and will create novel treatment options. The exciting developments in probing the brain constitute work in progress, and we are currently seeking more depressed and suicidal patients to volunteer for the investigation. Moreover, publicizing the problem is more likely to encourage investment in solutions. Kevin Malone, M.D. is Assistant Professor at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. J. John Mann, M.D. is Professor of Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Chief of the Department of Neuroscience at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.