Changes in brain metabolism associated with remission in unipolar major depression

Abstract

These findings support the hypothesis that selective monoamine reuptake inhibition leads to an attenuation of a brain circuit that mediates depressive symptomatology.

The pulvinar nucleus and antidepressant treatment: dynamic modeling of antidepressant response and remission with ultra-high field functional MRI

“…Nevertheless, these results match studies reporting altered pulvinar function in MD and highlight pulvinar and thalamic alterations in the pathophysiologic model of depression. Increased pulvinar BOLD-signals and glucose metabolism in untreated MD are substantiated by three meta-analyses [22][23][24] and elevated baseline glucose metabolism in the pulvinar was demonstrated to be reduced with remission [25]. Our study adds that increased pulvinar BOLD-signal at baseline was reduced after treatment.…”

Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Major Depression: Abnormally Increased Contributions from Subgenual Cingulate Cortex and Thalamus

“…As mentioned above, the thalamus was one of two regions (along with the subgenual cingulate) where increased preoperative metabolism predicted a positive response to anterior cingulotomy in patients with refractory depression (Dougherty et al 2003). Holthoff and colleagues have shown that thalamic metabolism decreases in depressed subjects as they go from the acute to the remitted phase of the illness (Holthoff et al 2004). Similarly, depressed patients in remission show increased thalamic metabolism after tryptophan depletion but not after sham depletion (Neumeister et al 2004).…”

Diurnal Variation in Regional Brain Glucose Metabolism in Depression

“…Hypermetabolism and increased perfusion in the cerebellum have been reported in healthy subjects during induced sadness paradigms, as well as in depressed patients during resting states (Videbech et al 2002). In depressed patients, response to antidepressant treatment has been associated with changes in blood flow and metabolic activity in the cerebellum (Holthoff et al 2004;Mayberg et al 2000). Recently, metabolic activity in the basal ganglia and cerebellum has been associated with the severity of insomnia complaints assessed on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Milak et al 2005).…”