Reading an anguished brain

Scanning the brains of people who are depressed or suicidal could point to better-targeted treatments. Although many people with depression respond well to treatment, those who don't present a conundrum to doctors but an opportunity for researchers: a group whose health could be transformed by precision psychiatry. Depression is often treated as a single disease, but most researchers agree that it is actually multiple, distinct ailments. Some of those variations may heighten suicide risk more than others. How many depression subtypes exist—and how they differ—is hotly debated. One way researchers are trying to settle the question is by peering into the brain. They're studying the neural circuits that light up during specific tasks and then correlating those patterns of activation with symptoms. The goal is not just to find biological markers of risk, but to tailor care accordingly—sometimes by reaching beyond psychiatry's usual armamentarium—and improve the prognosis of patients.