Depressive Symptoms in Multiple Sclerosis from an In Vivo Study with TBSS

Abstract

Clinically significant depression can impact up to 50% of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) over a course of their life time, which is associated with an increased morbidity and mortality. In our study, fifteen relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients and 15 age- and gender-matched normal controls were included. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was acquired by employing a single-shot echo planar imaging sequence on a 3.0 T MR scanner and fractional anisotropy (FA) was performed with tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) approach. Finally, widespread WM and GM abnormalities were observed in RRMS patients. Moreover, the relationships between the depressive symptoms which can be measured by Hamilton depression rating scale (HAMD) as well as clinical disabilities measured by the expanded disability status scale (EDSS) and FA changes were listed. There was a positive relation between EDSS and the FA changes in the right inferior parietal lobule, while negative relation was located in the left anterior cingulate cortex and hippocampus. Also a positive relation between HAMD and FA changes was found in the right posterior middle cingulate gyrus, the right hippocampus, the left hypothalamus, the right precentral gyrus, and the posterior cingulate which demonstrated a link between the depressive symptoms and clinically relevant brain areas in RRMS patients.

Depression in multiple sclerosis: effect of brain derived neurotrophic factor Val66Met polymorphism and disease perception

“…In fact, some studies reported an association between depression and higher levels of physical disability [13][14][15][16][17], but this finding was not replicated by other studies [18][19][20]. The occurrence of depression has also been associated with neuronal damage in the frontal and temporal lobes [21,22] and to changes in fractional anisotropy in cortical and subcortical structures [23]. The relevance of psychological factors on the development of depression emerged from several studies exploring coping strategies [24,25], personality traits [13], self-perception and disease perception [4,14,26,27].…”

Immune-Inflammatory and Oxidative and Nitrosative Stress Biomarkers of Depression Symptoms in Subjects with Multiple Sclerosis: Increased Peripheral Inflammation but Less Acute Neuroinflammation

“…Some authors [60,61] were unable to find significant correlations between the EDSS score and depressive scores. Most studies, however, found that MS patients with higher EDSS scores had significantly higher depression scores, while significant positive correlations were found between the EDSS and depression scores [62][63][64][65][66][67][68]. This is important as MS functional disability and especially depression predict physical health and quality of life [69][70][71].…”

Depression in multiple sclerosis

“…To our knowledge, depression is a reaction to a progressively disabling disease. Also, active lesions in frontal and limbic areas seem to be correlated with depression [13]. Clearly, further researches are needed to clarify the pathogenesis and to establish a causal link between cerebral damage and psychiatric manifestations.…”