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. 2015 Apr;30(4):393-9.
doi: 10.1002/gps.4149. Epub 2014 Jun 12.

Disassociation of verbal learning and hippocampal volume in type 2 diabetes and major depression

O Ajilore  1 , M Lamar, J Medina, K Watari, V Elderkin-Thompson, A Kumar
Affiliations

Disassociation of verbal learning and hippocampal volume in type 2 diabetes and major depression

O Ajilore et al. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2015 Apr.

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between verbal learning and memory performance and hippocampal volume in subjects with co-morbid type 2 diabetes and major depression compared with healthy control subjects and subjects with type 2 diabetes alone.

Methods: Twenty four subjects with type 2 diabetes and 20 subjects with type 2 diabetes and major depression were recruited from endocrinology clinics and were compared with 32 healthy control subjects recruited from the community. Subjects were scanned on a 1.5 T GE scanner, and hippocampal volumes were measured using Freesurfer. The California Verbal Learning Test assessed learning and memory. Significant predictors of verbal learning performance (e.g., age, gender, education, blood pressure, stroke risk, hemoglobin A1c, and hippocampal volume) were determined using a stepwise linear regression.

Results: Subjects with diabetes and depression had significantly worse performance on verbal list learning compared with healthy control subjects. Hippocampal volume was a strong predictor of performance in healthy control subjects, and age and hippocampal volume were strong predictors in subjects with type 2 diabetes alone. Age alone was a significant predictor of verbal learning performance in subjects with diabetes and depression.

Conclusions: The relationship between hippocampal volume and performance on the California Verbal Learning Test is decoupled in subjects with type 2 diabetes and major depression and this decoupling may contribute to poor verbal learning and memory performance in this study population.

Keywords: Diabetes; cognition; depression; hippocampus; medical co-morbidities.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
CVLT performance by group: Diabetic depressed subjects had significantly poorer performance compared to healthy control subjects (F = 5.16, p = .008; pairwise comparisons are indicated in the figure). Diabetic non-depressed subjects also did poorly compared to healthy control subjects, but they did not significantly differ with either healthy control subjects or diabetic depressed subjects.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Hippocampal volume by group. There was no significant difference in hippocampal volumes (F = 1.613, p = .205)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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