The University of Minnesota research team has worked out a one-minute test which can interpret discrete patterns of magnetic fields that brain cells create, and apparently lead to a 90 percent accurate diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Using a brain imaging technique called magnetoencephalography (MEG), which can effectively differentiate the brain activity of healthy people from PTSD patients, the research team, led by Apostolos Georgopoulos, tested 74 US veterans who had been earlier diagnosed with PTSD and 250 people with no past account of the mental infirmity.

The MEG test – which is based on the evaluation of “synchronous neural interactions” (SNI) or tiny magnetic fluctuations that occur in the brain, even when it is at rest, when hordes of neurons fire in synchrony – helped the researchers in correctly identifying the brain scans of as many as 72 out of the 74 PTSD patients.

Noting that the accuracy of the SNI approach is approximately 90 percent, the research team said: “The excellent results obtained offer major promise for the usefulness of the SNI test for differential diagnosis, as well as for monitoring disease progression and for evaluating the effects of psychological and/or drug treatment.”

Commenting on the findings, Keith Young, head of Veterans Association Center of Excellence for Research, said that though the study has underscored the potential of the MEG test, it is only the “first step” towards helping PTSD patients.