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Introduction
NeuroSPECT is a functional brain imaging technique that is frequently used in the practice of neuropsychiatry. However, affective bipolar disorder (ABD) has been relatively neglected, while the results reported so far have been rather controversial. (17, 11). However, due to the high prevalence and diagnostic difficulty for clinical assessment of this pathological condition it is essential to make progress in the development of tools for diagnostic support. In this regard, it has been possible to replicate a series of NeuroSPECT findings that will become markers for bipolar disorders and that suggest a neurobiological substrate for this clinical entity. The most probable hypothesis relates this condition to damage or imperfect function of orbito-frontal-subcortical circuits, however the precise description of the circuit is lacking (12).
This paper reports the neurofunctional findings in a cohort of 44 patients with a diagnosis of affective bipolar disorder divided in two groups one of early onset and the other, of late onset of disease. The emphasis of this study concentrates on finding neuro-functional markers of the clinical condition of bipolar disease.
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