Background
Although major depressive disorder (MDD) represents one of the most serious psychiatric
problems afflicting adolescents, efforts to understand the neural circuitry of adolescent
MDD have lagged behind those of adult MDD. This study tests the hypothesis that adolescent
MDD is associated with abnormal amygdala activity during evocative-face viewing.
Methods
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), between-group differences among
MDD (n = 10), anxious (n = 11), and non-psychiatric comparisons (n = 23) were examined during successful vs. unsuccessful face encoding, with encoding
success measured post-scan.
Results
Compared to healthy adolescents, MDD patients exhibited poorer memory for faces. fMRI
analyses accounted for this performance difference through event-related methods.
In an analysis comparing successful vs. unsuccessful face encoding, MDD patients exhibited
greater left amygdala activation relative to healthy and anxious youth.
Conclusions
Given prior findings among adults, this study suggests that adolescent and adult MDD
may involve similar underlying abnormalities in amygdala functioning.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 07, 2006
Accepted:
February 1,
2006
Received in revised form:
November 22,
2005
Received:
March 21,
2005
Identification
Copyright
© 2006 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
