Primary Use of MRI and fMRI in ADHD Assessment as a Qualitative Tool to Counter the Effects of Clinician Bias, Age, Gender, and SES

This diagnostic analysis gathered many current articles in the field of child psychiatry in order to determine if neuroimaging tools, specifically MRI and fMRI, can be implemented as a primary method of assessing ADHD. Neuroimaging was evaluated as a possible method to counterbalance the effects of clinical bias, age, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES), as these are factors that can lead to inaccurate diagnosis. Neurological signatures, such as changes in cortical thickness and activation of the prefrontal and premotor cortices, are observable in children with ADHD compared to typically developing children. These signatures hold potential as diagnostic markers of ADHD. This paper will discuss the pros and cons of neuroimaging approaches in diagnosis, including the cost of such techniques, which is a large limitation to implementing this proposed method. This barrier can hopefully be overcome with future studies and/or changes in health care policy