Back in the 1950s, doctors didn't know a whole lot about the heart. If someone came in with chest pain, clinicians would ask a few questions, then take a stab at treating what might be heartburn or a heart attack.

That's where mental health care is today, according to today's guest, Leanne Williams.

For example: you come into a psychiatrist’s office. The psychiatrist determines that you’ve experienced five or more depressive symptoms for at least two consecutive weeks and you get a diagnosis of major depressive disorder. Maybe you get prescribed some combination of therapy and medication. For some it works. For others it doesn’t. On average, finding an effective treatment for depression takes patients about 7 years – one of the reasons we’re in a mental health crisis.

Williams says that the key issue is that psychiatry does not base its diagnoses or treatment plans on any direct test of the organ of interest: the brain. According to Leanne’s research, people with depression actually fall into clearly different categories, caused by changes in specific brain networks that can be seen using brain imaging. She’s shown that using this data can lead to much more targeted and effective therapies.

Williams leads the Precision Mental Health Center at Stanford and is helming a new international task force that aims to create a road map for transforming mental health diagnosis and treatment based on biological data and brain imaging. We invited Leanne on the show to tell us about a sea change she sees happening in psychiatry.

Learn more

Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health
Stanford PanLab: Personalized and Translational Neuroscience Lab
Reimagining mental health: Stanford Medicine experts chosen to lead precision task force (Stanford Medicine, 2026)
Depression's distinctive fingerprints in the brain (From Our Neurons To Yours, 2024)
Cognitive behavioral therapy for depression can lead to lasting changes in the brain (Stanford Report, 2024)
A study identified 6 types of depression. Here’s why that matters (CNN, 2024)
Leanne Williams receives $18 million NIH grant to diagnose and treat depression (Stanford Report, 2024)
Brain scans could help personalize treatment for people who are depressed or suicidal (Science, 2019)
The Precision Mental Health Commission: transforming mental health through brain circuit science (Nature Mental Health, 2026)
Personalized Treatment Selection in Depression Using Clinically Interpretable Neuroimaging Biotypes (Biological Psychiatry, 2026)
Personalized brain circuit scores identify clinically distinct biotypes in depression and anxiety (Nature Medicine, 2024)

Send us a text!

Thanks for listening! If you're enjoying our show, please take a moment to give us a review on your podcast app of choice and share this episode with your friends. That's how we grow as a show and bring the stories of the frontiers of neuroscience to a wider audience.

We want to hear from your neurons! Email us at at neuronspodcast@stanford.edu

Learn more about the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

How brain imaging is transforming mental health (finally) | Leanne Williams

From Our Neurons to Yours

How brain imaging is transforming mental health (finally) | Leanne Williams