Abstract
Background: There is a growing literature on the importance of hippocampal volume
in geriatric depression.
Methods: We examined hippocampal volume in a group of elderly depressed patients and
a group of elderly control subjects (N = 66 geriatric depressed patients and 18 elderly nondepressed control subjects) recruited
through Duke’s Mental Health Clinical Research Center for the Study of Depression
in the Elderly. The subjects received a standardized evaluation, including a magnetic
resonance imaging scan of the brain. Patients had unipolar major depression and were
free of comorbid major psychiatric illness and neurologic illness. Differences were
assessed using t tests and linear regression modeling.
Results: Accounting for the effects of age, gender, and total brain volume, depressed
patients tended to have smaller right hippocampal volume (p = .014) and left hippocampal volume (p = .073). Among depressed patients, age of onset was negatively but not significantly
related to right hippocampal volume (p = .052) and to left hippocampal volume (p = .062). We noted that among subjects with either right or left hippocampal volume
of 3 mL or less, the vast majority were patients rather than control subjects.
Conclusions: These results support a role for hippocampal dysfunction in depression,
particularly in late-age onset depression. Longitudinal studies examining both depressive
and cognitive outcomes are needed to clarify the relationships between the hippocampus,
depression, and dementia.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Biological PsychiatryAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Hypercortisolemia and hippocampal changes in depression.Psychiatry Res. 1993; 47: 163-173
- Accuracy and reproducibility of brain and tissue volumes using a magnetic resonance segmentation method.Psychiatry Res. 1996; 67: 215-234
- A specific laboratory test for the diagnosis of melancholia. Standardization, validation, and clinical utility.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1981; 38: 15-22
- The Carroll Rating Scale for Depression. I. Development, reliability, and validation.Br J Psychiatry. 1981; 138: 194-200
- Brain anatomic effects of electroconvulsive therapy. A prospective magnetic resonance imaging study.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1991; 48: 1013-1021
- Quantitative cerebral anatomy in depression. A controlled magnetic resonance imaging study.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1993; 50: 7-16
- The Global Assessment Scale.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1976; 33: 766-771
- “Mini-mental state.” A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician.J Psychiatr Res. 1975; 12: 189-198
- Social support and the outcome of major depression.Br J Psychiatry. 1989; 154: 478-485
- Cerebral blood flow in dementia.Arch Neurol. 1975; 32: 632-637
- A rating scale for depression.J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1960; 23: 56-61
- Hippocampal atrophy and apoli-poprotein E genotype are independently associated with Alzheimer’s disease.Ann Neurol. 1998; 43: 303-310
Jorm AF, van Duijn CM, Chandra V, Fratiglioni L, Graves AB, Heyman A, et al (1991): Psychiatric history and related exposures as risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease: A collaborative re-analysis of case-control studies. Int J Epidemiol 20(suppl 2):S43–S47.
- Routine quantitative analysis of brain and cerebrospinal fluid spaces with MR imaging.J Magn Reson Imaging. 1992; 2: 619-629
- Clinical risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease.Neurology. 1991; 41: 1393-1397
- Hippocampal abnormalities in depression.J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 1991; 3: 387-391
- MRI-defined vascular depression.Am J Psychiatry. 1997; 154: 497-501
- Apolipoprotein E epsilon 4.Neurology. 1994; 44: 2420-2421
- MRI of the hippocampus in Alzheimer’s disease.Neurobiol Aging. 1998; 19: 23-31
- Alternative models of the stress buffering hypothesis.Am J Community Psychol. 1989; 17: 626-642
- Cumulative illness rating scale.J Am Geriatr Soc. 1968; 16: 622-626
- Relative accuracy and reproducibility of regional MRI brain volumes for point-counting methods.Psychiatry Res. 1994; 55: 167-177
- Possible mechanisms for atrophy of the human hippocampus.Mol Psychiatry. 1997; 2: 255-262
- The serotonergic and noradrenergic systems of the hippocampus.Brain Res Brain Res Rev. 1997; 23: 145-195
- A new depression scale designed to be sensitive to change.Br J Psychiatry. 1979; 134: 382-389
- Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease (CERAD) clinical and neuropsychological assessment of Alzheimer’s disease.Psychopharmacol Bull. 1988; 24: 641-652
- Temporal lobe magnetic resonance imaging can differentiate Alzheimer’s disease from normal ageing, depression, vascular dementia and other causes of cognitive impairment.Psychol Med. 1997; 27: 1267-1275
- The CES-D scale.Appl Psychol Measures. 1977; 1: 385-401
- National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1981; 38: 381-389
- Potential behavioral modification of glucocorticoid damage to the hippocampus.Behav Brain Res. 1993; 57: 175-182
- Hippocampal atrophy in major depression.Mol Psychiatry. 1996; 1: 298-299
- Hippocampal atrophy in recurrent major depression.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996; 93: 3908-3913
- The anatomy of mood disorders—review of structural neuroimaging studies.Biol Psychiatry. 1997; 41: 86-106
- History of depression as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.Epidemiology. 1995; 6: 366-369
- Psychiatric diagnosis.Compr Psychiatry. 1983; 24: 399-411
- A twin study of late-onset depression and apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 as risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease.Biol Psychiatry. 1997; 41: 851-856
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
February 7,
2000
Received in revised form:
February 1,
2000
Received:
September 3,
1999
Identification
Copyright
© 2000 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
