Ingmar Bergman’s hooded image of death, whether playing chess or on the beach, is so startling that even David Cameron would be lost for welcoming words, let alone a hug. Bergman died this week at the age of 89. Although his films epitomised Scandinavian gloom, 20th-century angst and the precariousness of existence there has been plenty of cinematic evidence shown recently that demonstrates how after the shoot was over Bergman was often convulsed by laughter.

These film extracts reveal that his jollity could well have been a protective mask hiding a vulnerable personality. The Scandinavian phlegmatic temperament may often conceal a range of psychological problems. The suicide rate in Sweden is the highest in Europe and research by Danish doctors four years ago concluded that one in five patients they treated was suffering from a somatoform disorder, psychological problems that include hypochondriasis, somatisation and the conversion disorders. These troubles could all result in the patients suffering from them to be labelled “heartsink” or what our Victorian forebears would call hysteria.

The Danes founded a clinic at Bispebjerg outside Copenhagen for the treatment of hypochondria. There, doctors don’t peer into their computers as a patient arrives, before inwardly groaning as they scribble out a standard prescription for Prozac or another 5HT reuptake inhibitor. Instead they smile as they sign the new patient up for cognitive behavioural therapy.

Doctors may well be too ready to tag a patient as heartsink. The European Scanning Clinic in Harley Street reviewed a number of patients who had been described by their medical advisers as hypochondriacs, although the patients were convinced that there were organic causes for their troubles. Scanning revealed that a large percentage of patients had physical conditions that could be detected with a modern electron beam CT (EBCT) scanner or other scanning devices.

The role of different types of scanner in diagnostic medicine – which type is best suited to detect the likely disease – is part of medical lore that few patients have mastered. It is also something of a mystery to many doctors. I usually found out from the experts the type of scanning my patient needed before arranging the consultation. The first rule is to have scans carried out in a first-class centre. The choice of staff is as important as the equipment. It is obvious that a good radiologist, the doctor who makes the diagnosis, is crucial to the result.

It is easy, however, to overlook the difference that skilled and well-trained radiographers, the medical technicians who take the pictures, make to the doctors’ ability to make a difficult diagnosis. Experienced radiographers are able to watch the picture unfurling during scanning and make last-minute decisions and modifications that enable the doctor to receive the best material on which to base their diagnosis. Dr Paul Jenkins and Dr Sarah Howling, who are the doctors in charge at the Euro Scanning Clinic, in Harley Street, London, suggest that the best radiographers have a good educational background followed by a sound basic training and years of experience.

MRI scanners are excellent for the examination of the brain, the spine and joints, but not so good for imaging coronary arteries, detecting nodules in the lung or examination of the guts. CT scanning is also excellent for evaluating the potential risk of a stroke occasioned by any furring-up of the arteries, for examining cysts, neck tumours, the orbit, and the sinuses – X-raying sinuses is not usually useful for excluding sinusitis – and for dental work. There are always exceptions to these generalisations. An MRI scan, for example, is excellent at detecting a cerebral tumour, but after a stroke a CT scan is more likely to be useful as it can rapidly exclude a bleeding haemorrhagic stroke and therefore allow treatment to start for the common strokes caused by a clot.

Scanners are constantly improving. Over the past few years multide-tector CT (MDCT) scanners have largely replaced earlier spiral scanners. Med Tel Medical Centre has recently installed the first Philips Tesla Open High Field MRI scanner in London, which is only the second one in the UK. Although the scanner is noisy the patient is not confined in the cigar-shaped tube and so it’s a doddle when dealing with the claustrophobic, overweight or anxious. The open MRI enables examination of joints in any position so that it is particularly useful in detecting joint injuries. It also gives a superb picture. Specialised scanning centres need to have access to a variety of machinery.

Euro Scanning Clinic, 68 Harley Street, europeanscanning.com (020-7436 5755); Med Tel Medical Centre: 27 Harley St, www.medtel.co.uk (0800 0282288)