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. 2011 Jan;19(1):43-52.
doi: 10.1097/JGP.0b013e3181e70cec.

One-year change in anterior cingulate cortex white matter microstructure: relationship with late-life depression outcomes

Warren D Taylor  1 , James R Macfall, Brian Boyd, Martha E Payne, Yvette I Sheline, Ranga R Krishnan, P Murali Doraiswamy
Affiliations

One-year change in anterior cingulate cortex white matter microstructure: relationship with late-life depression outcomes

Warren D Taylor et al. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2011 Jan.

Abstract

Objective: differences in white matter structure measured with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) are associated with late-life depression, but results examining how these differences relate to antidepressant remission are mixed. To better describe these relationships, the authors examined how 1-year change in DTI measures are related to 1-year course of depression.

Design: one-year cross-sectional follow-up to a 12-week clinical trial of sertraline.

Setting: outpatients at an academic medical center.

Participants: twenty-nine depressed and 20 never-depressed elderly subjects. Over the 1-year period, 16 depressed subjects achieved and maintained remission, whereas 13 did not.

Measurements: one-year change in fractional anisotropy (FA) and diffusivity in frontal white matter, as measured by DTI.

Results: contrary to our hypotheses, depressed subjects who did not remit over the study interval exhibited significantly less change in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) white matter FA than did never-depressed or depressed-remitted subjects. There were no group differences in other frontal or central white matter regions. Moreover, there was a significant positive relationship between change in Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and change in ACC FA, wherein greater interval decline in FA was associated with greater interval decline in MADRS.

Conclusion: older depressed individuals who remit exhibit white matter changes comparable with what is observed in never-depressed individuals, whereas nonremitters exhibit significantly less change in ACC FA. Such a finding may be related to either antidepressant effects on brain structure or the effects of chronic stress on brain structure. Further work is needed to better understand this relationship.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Change in Anterior Cingulate Cortex Fractional Anisotropy Figures show slope of change in ACC FA for each subject by diagnostic cohort. A) Nondepressed subjects; B) Depressed, remitted subjects; C) Depressed, nonremitted subjects.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Change in MADRS by change in Frontal Anisotropy Figures display change in MADRS score by change in anterior cingulate cortex FA. Both change values displayed as 1 year – baseline measures.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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