ReviewJournal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI2026
Pharmacological MRI: Utility in Understanding Drug Mechanisms in Psychiatric Disorders.
Review in Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Pharmacological MRI: Utility in Understanding Drug Mechanisms in Psychiatric Disorders.Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Pharmacological MRI (pharmaMRI) has emerged as a powerful tool to study how psychoactive drugs affect brain function and to uncover mechanisms of drug action in psychiatric disorders. This review provides an overview of key techniques used in pharmaMRI, including BOLD-fMRI, arterial spin labeling (ASL), and cerebral blood volume (CBV) mapping, and how they have advanced our understanding of drug-induced changes in neural activity and connectivity. We present key advances in both preclinical and clinical pharmaMRI, highlighting its value in elucidating drug mechanisms and informing psychiatric treatment development. In preclinical studies, pharmaMRI benefits from optimized hardware, the use of contrast agents such as iron oxide nanoparticles, and precise experimental control, including invasive neuromodulation techniques (e.g., opto- and chemogenetics). These studies offer critical mechanistic insights into receptor-specific and circuit-level drug effects, supporting hypothesis-driven translation to humans. Clinically, pharmaMRI has advanced our understanding of how compounds, such as antidepressants, antipsychotics, and stimulants, affect large-scale brain networks and offers potential for modeling psychiatric phenotypes and predicting treatment response. Furthermore, pharmaMRI can serve as a biomarker for target engagement and refine dose selection in early-phase trials. Despite growing interest, clinical adoption remains limited. Systematic use of both preclinical and clinical pharmaMRI could accelerate drug development, support precision psychiatry, and deepen understanding of treatment mechanisms. Finally, open science practices and large-scale datasets can help contextualize drug effects within broader neural and molecular frameworks. While these developments present some challenges, they position pharmaMRI as a critical bridge between molecular mechanisms and systems-level brain function in psychiatry. EVIDENCE LEVEL: N/A. TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 1.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.