The invention is a method for the differential diagnosis of chronic schizophrenia or chronic alcoholism, by imaging the brain of a subject to detect any or all of the markers phosphocreatine (PCr), N-acetyl aspartate divided by the total creatine signal (NA/Crt), and synaptic phosphodiester (sPDE), and determining any increase or decrease in the presence of such markers compared to normal levels in specified anatomic areas of the brain. The output of such a method, resulting from such imaging, is presented to be viewed by a diagnostician in order to support the differential diagnosis based on the data output.
