Why can brain scans see depression?
For the longest time now, we’ve been told that the wondrous advances in imaging technology of recent years will make the diagnosis and subsequent focused, quantifiably effective–or–not treatment of depression a reality. And yet we are no closer now than we were before the decade of the brain began. It ended in 2000, by the way, with most such promises unkept. Why? Because it turns out that the markers for depression — if they even exist — are far more elusive than anyone had reason to believe they would be. Benedict Carey wrote an excellent article for the October 18 New York Times Science section headlined, “Can Brain Scans See Depression?” Long answer short: no. Here’s Carey’s excellent piece. Can Brain Scans See Depression? They seem almost alive: snapshots of the living human brain. Not long ago, scientists predicted that these images, produced by sophisticated brain-scanning techniques, would help cut through the mystery of mental illness, revealing clear brain abnormalities and a
