Dorsal bed nucleus of stria terminalis in depressed and nondepressed temporal lobe epilepsy patients

Abstract

Objective: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and depression are common comorbid disorders whose underlying shared neural network has yet to be determined.Although animal studies demonstrate a role for the dorsal bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (dBNST) in both seizures and depression, and human clinical studies demonstrate a therapeutic effect of stimulating this region on treatment-resistant depression, the role of the dBNST in depressed and nondepressed TLE patients is still unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis that this structure is morphologically abnormal in these epilepsy patients, with an increased abnormality in TLE patients with comorbid depression. Methods: In this case-controlled study, 3-T structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were obtained from TLE patients with no depression (TLEonly), TLE patients with depression (TLEdep), and healthy control (HC) subjects. TLE subjects were recruited from the Yale University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, diagnosed with the International League Against Epilepsy 2014 Diagnostic Guidelines, and confirmed by video-electroencephalography. Diagnosis of major depressive disorder was confirmed by a trained neuropsychologist through a Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview based on the Diagnostic and Statistical How to cite this article: Dhaher R, Bronen RA, Spencer L, Colic L, Brown F & Mian A et al. Dorsal bed nucleus of stria terminalis in depressed and nondepressed temporal lobe epilepsy patients.