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Home » Mental Health News

Scientists Find Neural Basis for Depression

by Tanya Thomas on September 02, 2010 at 11:46 AM Mental Health News

Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), researchers have shown that depressed patients had an abnormal activation of the medial prefrontal cortex.

Scientists Find Neural Basis for Depression

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During the study, subjects had to judge whether personality traits described them or not (i.e. 'Am I selfish?'), or whether it described a generally desirable trait or not (i.e. 'Is it good or bad to be greedy?').

The dysfunction of the medial prefrontal region may explain specific complaints of depressed patients such as self-blame, rumination and feeling of guilt.

It was observed that this activation pattern was maintained over the course of depression after 8 weeks of antidepressant treatment.

These results are difficult to interpret but suggest that, after remission of depression, some patients show persistent abnormalities of specific brain regions.

Such abnormalities may indicate the need for complementary treatment such as cognitive behavioural therapy in order to reduce the risk of depressive recurrence.

Overall, these findings suggest that brain-imaging studies could provide biomarkers of diagnosis and improve patients� chances to responding to specific treatment modalities.

Such neurobiological markers of depression may help psychiatrists to tailor antidepressant treatment to the brain and the biological needs of the patients.

In the general population, depression is still frequently associated with bad life style, impairment of volition and 'psychological weakness'.

However, the results of brain imaging studies clearly have confirmed that depression is a true brain disease associated with dysfunction of specific brain regions involved in cognitive control and emotional response.

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