Brain Mapping & Connectomics: Emerging Evidence for Mental Health Treatment
The brain is a complicated network of parts that interact. As we get better at being able to see how all of those networks function — thanks to options like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) — we can begin mapping the connections in the brain. A new field of medicine is consequently emerging: connectomics.
Connectomics seeks to understand how neurons — the cells that transmit electrical and chemical signals throughout the body — communicate with one another in the brain. This has the potential to teach us a lot about how and why we think, move, and perceive the world around us.
It’s unsurprising, then, that connectomics has applications in mental health.
The Promise of Connectomics for Affected Veterans
Connectomics, for example, is helping to fast-track diagnostics and therapeutics for veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The World Brain Mapping Foundation (BMF) and the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT) have joined together to gather up leading scientists, engineers, physicians, and surgeons. These experts are evaluating the brain maps of U.S. military members to identify specific areas of need for them.
The BMF has developed its own military medicine subcommittee, which partners with the Department of Defense, the Joint Forces Command, and other federal military agencies to drive a culture change in how the military looks at TBI and PTSD. That’s increasing recognition that military personnel can be injured without ever getting a single cut or sustaining a single blow.
Connectomics delivers proof of issues like TBI and PTSD. Plus, it promises faster diagnosis and more targeted treatment for these brain-affecting injuries.
How Connectomics Transforms Treatment
Here at Delve Psychiatry, we’ve been applying connectomics for 18 months. Using an fMRI, board-certified psychiatrist John Reitano, MD, maps the brain connections for patients. This allows him to identify changes to areas that we believe impact mental health, including:
Depression
Anxiety
Cognition
Attention
Traumatic memories
Unproductive obsessive thoughts
Reward centers
Insomnia
Suicidal ideation
With the fMRI, we can see brain changes from the multiple factors that can affect your mental wellness, including trauma, stress, relationship conflict, metabolic concerns, your genetic makeup, and substance use.
Once Dr. Reitano has a map of your brain, he uses it to apply targeted transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy to the dysfunctional areas. To date, he has successfully treated more than 100 patients with depression and anxiety with this off-label approach.
The connectomics backing has driven notable results for those patients. A handful of them tried one-size-fits-all TMS before. When Dr. Reitano applied the off-label fMRI-backed, connectomics-based target approach; these patients reported a more robust response. While this represents a small-sample size, these early findings are encouraging.
That didn’t stop with alleviated symptoms of anxiety or depression, either. Patients have told us that they sleep better or notice improvements in their immune function, cognition and attention, and relationship and social interactions. Patients with Parkinson’s disease have said they experienced better motor function, too.
We have heard one thing over and over since applying connectomics to our TMS treatment. Patients repeatedly tell us that they feel that their former and true self has been restored.
Note that targeted TMS based on fMRIs is currently off-label, meaning it’s not yet approved by the FDA. It is currently being studied at major academic centers, though. With a growing body of evidence of how it helps patients, we’re optimistic about its eventual FDA clearance.
If you’re living with depression, anxiety, PTSD, or another mental health condition, mapping your brain might give you a way to target the parts of your brain that aren’t functioning the way you want. To explore this in more detail with our team, schedule an appointment with us today.
