Brain Imaging in Mood Disorders

Ebmeier, Klaus P.; Kronhaus, Dina M.

doi:10.1002/0470854871.chxviii9

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 132 publications

(173 reference statements)

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“…The other significant region is located within the left uncinate fasciculus and might be related to previous reports of structural and functional abnormality of the left prefrontal and temporal lobes in depressive illness. 6 However, this region does not remain significant after correction for multiple testing using the FDR method. No regions of increased FA were identified.…”

Section: Dt-mrimentioning

confidence: 97%

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Possible structural abnormality of the brainstem in unipolar depressive illness: a transcranial ultrasound and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging study

Steele

Bastin²,

Ebmeier³

2005

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry

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Background: Most empirically derived antidepressants increase monoamine levels. The nuclei of cells synthesising these monoamines are located in the brainstem, and projection tracts such as the medial forebrain bundle reach virtually all other brain areas. Two studies of unipolar depressive illness using transcranial ultrasound have reported reduced echogenicity of the brainstem midline in unipolar depressed patients. This may be consistent with disruption of white matter tracts, including the medial forebrain bundle, and it has been suggested that the effect of such disruption could be reversed by antidepressants. Objective: To replicate these findings in a group of unipolar depressed patients and controls. Methods: Fifteen unipolar depressed patients and 15 controls were studied using transcranial ultrasound imaging and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI). Results: No difference in echogenicity of the brainstem midline of unipolar depressed patients was found. A possible trend (Cohen's d = 0.39) in the direction of previous studies was found. Although the echogenicity of the brainstem midline of the control group was found to be similar to previous reports, there was no reduction in the patient group. Additionally, no structural abnormality of the brainstem was identified using DT-MRI. Conclusions: While these data do not replicate the findings of previous studies reporting a significant reduction in the echogenicity of the brainstem midline in unipolar depressed patients, the ultrasound investigation indicated that there may be a trend in this direction. Given the importance of identifying the causes of depressive illness, it is important that other groups attempt similar studies.

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Section: Dt-mrimentioning

confidence: 97%

“…5 The anterior cingulate has often been reported as having abnormal function and structure in depressive illness. 6 Studies on primates indicate that there is a topographical projection from the cingulate to the pons. The anterior cingulate projects to the midline pons and the posterior cingulate to the lateral pons.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Possible structural abnormality of the brainstem in unipolar depressive illness: a transcranial ultrasound and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging study

Steele

Bastin²,

Ebmeier³

2005

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry

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“…Certain frontal cortical areas, such as anterior cingulate, orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral frontal cortex, but also connected areas, such as striatum and medial temporal lobe have commonly been reported as abnormal in functional and structural imaging studies of depressed patients (Ebert and Ebmeier, 1996;Drevets, 2000b;Ebmeier and Kronhaus, 2002;Mayberg, 2003;Steele and Lawrie, 2004a). To summarise and simplify results, neuroimaging studies of patients with depressive disorder often report abnormally increased activity in emotion-related brain regions and underactivity in cognition-related regions (Drevets, 2000a;Ebmeier and Kronhaus, 2002;Mayberg, 2003;Steele and Lawrie, 2004a).…”

Section: Major Depressive Disordermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To summarise and simplify results, neuroimaging studies of patients with depressive disorder often report abnormally increased activity in emotion-related brain regions and underactivity in cognition-related regions (Drevets, 2000a;Ebmeier and Kronhaus, 2002;Mayberg, 2003;Steele and Lawrie, 2004a). We have previously investigated segregation of cognitive and emotional function in the prefrontal cortex of healthy subjects using a spatial meta-analysis of functional imaging studies (Steele and Lawrie, 2004b).…”

Section: Major Depressive Disordermentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive impairment and fMRI in major depression

2006

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Cognitive impairment in depression may be one of the more practically important aspects of the illness, responsible for much of its morbidity. It also is at the heart of its psychopathology, may contribute to strategies of treatment, and may give us a more easily quantifiable measure of impaired function to correlate with brain activity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is ideally suited to examine brain function in depression. It has the correct time window to repeatedly sample cognitive task performance; it does not require exposure to radioactive tracers and can therefore be repeated many times; it also can be linked with high resolution structural images acquired in the same imaging session that help identify the regions of activation and support the spatial transformation necessary to compare the scans of different subjects. fMRI has already produced a series of consistent results in depression, identifying increased activity of rostral anterior cingulate and other medial prefrontal structures during effortful tasks and on occasion also increased dorsolateral prefrontal activity, suggesting increased possibly compensatory activity to maintain task performance. Investigating the interplay between limbic (orbitomedial) and 'cognitive' dorsolateral structures clearly has the potential to clarify important illness mechanisms of depressive illness.

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