Voxel-Based Morphometry Imaging Studies in Major Depression

AbstractBackgroundPatients with major depression show reduced hippocampal volume compared to healthy controls. However, the contribution of patients’ cumulative illness severity to hippocampal volume has rarely been investigated. It was the aim of our study to find a composite score of cumulative illness severity that is associated with hippocampal volume in depression.MethodsWe estimated hippocampal gray matter volume using 3-tesla brain magnetic resonance imaging in 213 inpatients with acute major depression according to DSM-IV criteria (employing the SCID interview) and 213 healthy controls. Patients’ cumulative illness severity was ascertained by six clinical variables via structured clinical interviews. A principal component analysis was conducted to identify components reflecting cumulative illness severity. Regression analyses and a voxel-based morphometry approach were used to investigate the influence of patients’ individual component scores on hippocampal volume.ResultsPrincipal component analysis yielded two main components of cumulative illness severity: Hospitalization and Duration of Illness. While the component Hospitalization incorporated information from the intensity of inpatient treatment, the component Duration of Illness was based on the duration and frequency of illness episodes. We could demonstrate a significant inverse association of patients’ Hospitalization component scores with bilateral hippocampal gray matter volume. This relationship was not found for Duration of Illness component scores.ConclusionsVariables associated with patients’ history of psychiatric hospitalization seem to be accurate predictors of hippocampal volume in major depression and reliable estimators of patients’ cumulative illness severity. Future studies should pay attention to these measures when investigating hippocampal volume changes in major depression.

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Changes of Brain Morphometry in First-Episode, Drug-Naïve, Non–Late-Life Adult Patients with Major Depression: An Optimized Voxel-Based Morphometry Study

Biological Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.09.014 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 67 (2) ◽

pp. 186-188 ◽

Cited By ~ 81

Author(s):

Ke Zou ◽

Wei Deng ◽

Tao Li ◽

Bo Zhang ◽

Lijun Jiang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Major Depression ◽

Late Life ◽

Adult Patients ◽

First Episode ◽

Voxel Based Morphometry ◽

Brain Morphometry ◽

Drug Naïve

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Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies of Postpartum Depression: An Overview

Behavioural Neurology ◽

10.1155/2015/913843 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2015 ◽

pp. 1-7 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Marco Fiorelli ◽

Franca Aceti ◽

Isabella Marini ◽

Nicoletta Giacchetti ◽

Enrica Macci ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Major Depression ◽

Magnetic Resonance ◽

Postpartum Depression ◽

Literature Search ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Small Samples ◽

Systematic Literature Search ◽

Resonance Imaging ◽

Imaging Studies ◽

Magnetic Resonance Studies

Postpartum depression is a frequent and disabling condition whose pathophysiology is still unclear. In recent years, the study of the neural correlates of mental disorders has been increasingly approached using magnetic resonance techniques. In this review we synthesize the results from studies on postpartum depression in the context of structural, functional, and spectroscopic magnetic resonance studies of major depression as a whole. Compared to the relative wealth of data available for major depression, magnetic resonance studies of postpartum depression are limited in number and design. A systematic literature search yielded only eleven studies conducted on about one hundred mothers with postpartum depression overall. Brain magnetic resonance findings in postpartum depression appear to replicate those obtained in major depression, with minor deviations that are not sufficient to delineate a distinct neurobiological profile for this condition, due to the small samples used and the lack of direct comparisons with subjects with major depression. However, it seems reasonable to expect that studies conducted in larger populations, and using a larger variety of brain magnetic resonance techniques than has been done so far, might allow for the identification of neuroimaging signatures for postpartum depression.

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Reduced Grey Matter Volume in Frontal and Temporal Areas in Depression: A Voxel Based Morphometry Study

10.20944/preprints201902.0078.v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sevdalina Kandilarova ◽

Drozdstoy Stoyanov ◽

Nickolay Sirakov ◽

Michael Maes ◽

Karsten Specht

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Major Depression ◽

Mood Disorders ◽

Grey Matter ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Grey Matter Volume ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Voxel Based Morphometry

Objective: The aim of the current study was to examine whether and to what extent mood disorders, comprising major depression and bipolar disorder, are accompanied by structural changes in the brain as measured using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Methods: We have performed a VBM study using a 3Т MRI system (GE Discovery 750w) in patients with mood disorders (n=50), namely 39 with major depression and 11 with bipolar disorder, compared to 42 age, sex and education matched healthy controls. Results: Our results show that depression was associated with significant decreases in grey matter (GM) volume restricted to regions located in medial frontal and anterior cingulate cortex on the left side and middle frontal gyrus, medial orbital gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus (triangular and orbital parts), and middle temporal gyrus (extending to the superior temporal gyrus) on the right side. When the patient group was separated into bipolar disorder and major depression the reductions remained significant only for the patients with major depressive disorder. Conclusions: Using VBM the present study was able to replicate decreases in GM volume restricted to frontal and temporal regions in patients with mood disorders mainly major depression, as compared with healthy controls. 

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Reduced grey matter volume in frontal and temporal areas in depression: contributions from voxel-based morphometry study

Acta Neuropsychiatrica ◽

10.1017/neu.2019.20 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 31 (05) ◽

pp. 252-257 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Sevdalina Kandilarova ◽

Drozdstoy Stoyanov ◽

Nickolay Sirakov ◽

Michael Maes ◽

Karsten Specht

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Major Depression ◽

Mood Disorders ◽

Grey Matter ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽

Grey Matter Volume ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Voxel Based Morphometry

AbstractObjective:The aim of the current study was to examine whether and to what extent mood disorders, comprising major depression and bipolar disorder, are accompanied by structural changes in the brain as measured using voxel-based morphometry (VBM).Methods:We performed a VBM study using a 3Т MRI system (GE Discovery 750w) in patients with mood disorders (n=50), namely, 39 with major depression and 11 with bipolar disorder compared to 42 age-, sex- and education-matched healthy controls.Results:Our results show that depression was associated with significant decreases in grey matter (GM) volume of the regions located within the medial frontal and anterior cingulate cortex on the left side and middle frontal gyrus, medial orbital gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus (triangular and orbital parts) and middle temporal gyrus (extending to the superior temporal gyrus) on the right side. When the patient group was separated into bipolar disorder and major depression, the reductions remained significant only for patients with major depressive disorder.Conclusions:Using VBM the present study was able to replicate decreases in GM volume restricted to frontal and temporal regions in patients with mood disorders, mainly major depression, compared with healthy controls.

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Has analytical flexibility increased in imaging studies of bipolar disorder and major depression?

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291714001354 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 45 (3) ◽

pp. 449-451 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

M. R. Munafò ◽

M. J. Kempton

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Major Depression ◽

Imaging Studies ◽

Extensive Discussion ◽

Over Time

There has been extensive discussion of problems of reproducibility of research. Analytical flexibility may contribute to this, by increasing the likelihood that a reported finding represents a chance result. We explored whether analytical flexibility has increased over time, using human imaging studies of bipolar disorder and major depression. Our results indicate that the number of measures collected per study has increased over time for studies of bipolar disorder, but not for studies of major depression.

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Short Latency Gray Matter Changes in Voxel-Based Morphometry following High Frequent Visual Stimulation

Neural Plasticity ◽

10.1155/2017/1397801 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2017 ◽

pp. 1-6 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Steffen Naegel ◽

Tim Hagenacker ◽

Nina Theysohn ◽

Hans-Christoph Diener ◽

Zaza Katsarava ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gray Matter ◽

Structural Changes ◽

Molecular Mechanisms ◽

Visual Stimulation ◽

Physiological Mechanism ◽

Voxel Based Morphometry ◽

Imaging Studies ◽

Study Results ◽

Fluid Shifts ◽

Cell Genesis

Magnetic resonance imaging studies using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) detected structural changes in the human brain within periods of months or weeks. The underlying molecular mechanisms of VBM findings remain unresolved. We showed that simple visual stimulation by an alternating checkerboard leads to instant, short-lasting alterations of the primary and secondary visual cortex detected by VBM. The rapidness of occurrence (i.e., within 10 minutes) rather excludes most of the proposed physiological mechanism such as neural or glial cell genesis/degeneration or synapse turnover. We therefore favour cerebral fluid shifts to be the underlying correlate of the here observed VBM gray matter changes. Fast onset gray matter changes might be one important explanation for the inconsistency of VBM study results that often raise concern in regard to the validity of presented data. This study shows that changes detectable by VBM may occur within a few minutes after physiological stimulation and must be considered in future VBM experiments to avoid misinterpretation of results.

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