Abstract
Objective: To examine the relationship between depression, regional brain volume, and cognition. Background Depression is multimodal with effects in emotion, sleep, appetite, behavior, and cognition. Deficits are often demonstrated in memory, fluency, and attentional set shifting. In addition, depression in adults is linked to atrophy in prefrontal cortex and hippocampus with the degree of atrophy associated with the length of depression. Design/Methods: 29 patients with major depressive disorder (62% treatment response) completed baseline clinical and cognitive assessments, and MRI. MRIs were T1-weighted, 3mm coronal slices acquired perpendicular to the hippocampus. Patients were treated with medication for 8 weeks then assessed again. 8 healthy controls were enrolled for MRI comparison. Regions of interest (hippocampus & dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [DLPFC]) were drawn on MRI images which were normalized to intracranial volume. Results: Multiple regression analysis found a significant relationship between baseline depression severity and left hippocampal volume (B= -0.62, t=-2.18, p=.042) and verbal memory recall (B= -0.56, t=-2.85, p=.01) with age, sex, and right hippocampal volume as non-significant predictors. When divided, patients Conclusions: The severity of depression is related to left hippocampal volume and verbal memory. The strength of this relationship is larger in older versus younger adults with depression. It appears that depression has a greater effect on regional brain volume as people age. Thus, hippocampal volume and mild memory deficits may increase risk of depression especially in older adults. Disclosure: Dr. Devier has nothing to disclose. Dr. Knaus has nothing to disclose. Dr. Ramos has nothing to disclose. Dr. Foundas has nothing to disclose. Dr. Kangarlu has nothing to disclose. Dr. Small has nothing to disclose. Dr. Devanand has received personal compensation for activities with Forest Labs as a speaker.Dr. Devanand has received research support from Eli Lilly and Forest Labs.
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