Is there a definitive test for mental illness? Not yet, but using advanced neuropsychiatric diagnostic tools including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), mental health professionals at The Menninger Clinic in Houston are pinpointing the causes of behavioral and psychiatric problems in patients.
“Even though a patient may have a straightforward mental health diagnosis or diagnoses, the neuropsychiatric approach can help us rule out medical or neurological reasons for the patient's symptoms before we settle on a psychiatric reason,” says Florence Kim, M.D., director of the Menninger Comprehensive Psychiatric Assessment Service.
Launched in April, the Assessment Service provides adults who have behavioral and psychiatric issues with a thorough two-week assessment, including extensive neuropsychiatric testing. The service is designed as one stop for thorough assessment for individuals who are not making adequate progress in other treatment settings, desire a second opinion, require a thorough psychiatric assessment to determine what treatment program may fit their needs or who were referred by their clinician.
Patients in the program also undergo a psychiatric evaluation, extensive neuropsychological testing, psychological testing, psychosocial evaluation, a family system study and a neurological consult. Menninger's affiliation with Baylor College of Medicine provides patients with access to consultants in neuropsychology and neurology for help with brain disorders such as stroke, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injury.
The Assessment Service also offers genotyping for patients who don't respond well to psychiatric medications. A simple blood test can reveal whether a patient may metabolize a drug too fast, which provides the patient with little benefit, or metabolizes the drug too slowly, which can increase the amount of drug that builds up in the body, causing side effects such as nausea. Currently, doctors prescribe psychiatric medications based on their experience of what works best, but they can't predict how medications will work in each individual patient. As a result, patients may spend several months or years trying to find the best medication with the fewest side effects.