Subcortical hyperintensities on magnetic resonance imaging in patients with severe depression—A longitudinal evaluation

doi:10.1016/S0006-3223(96)00363-0

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 42, Issue 5, 1 September 1997, Pages 367-374

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3223(96)00363-0 Get rights and content

In a longitudinal evaluation of 37 patients with severe depression who had undergone brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) 6 months—2 years (mean 14.1 months) previously, the degree of residual dysfunction was predicted by the extent of subcortical white matter hyperintensities (WMHS, p < .01), longer time elapsed since the MRI scan (p < .05), older age (p < .05), and older age at onset of affective disorder (p < .05). Ten (27%) patients developed “probable” dementia syndromes of the vascular type, with such syndromes being predicted by WMHS (p < .01) and older age of onset of affective disorder (p < .05). Institutionalization of patients was predicted largely by the combination of chronic depression, progressive cognitive decline, and advanced age. The study supports the notion that a subgroup of patients with late-onset depressive disorders, without a family history of depression, and with risk factors to cerebrovascular disease, have extensive WMHS on MRI, and that such structural brain changes predispose to chronic depression and progressive cognitive decline.

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Subcortical hyperintensities on magnetic resonance imaging in patients with severe depression—A longitudinal evaluation

Psychiatr Clin North Am

Biol Psychiatry

J Affect Disord

Biol Psychiatry

Neurobiol Aging

Psychiatry Res

Biol Psychiatry

Lancet

Clinical and biological findings in late-onset depression

Brain changes in geriatric depression

Int J Geriatr Psychiatry

The course of geriatric depression with ‘reversible dementia’: A controlled study

Am J Psychiatry

Incidental subcortical lesions identified on magnetic resonance imaging in the elderly: I: Correlation with age and cerebrovascular risk factors

Stroke

Epidemiology of dysphoria and depression in an elderly population

Am J Psychiatry

Personality differences between patients with remitted melancholic and nonmelancholic depression

Am J Psychiatry

Brain MR: Pathologic correlation with gross and histopathology 2: Hyperintense white-matter foci in the elderly

Am J Neuroradiol

Melancholia and the ageing brain

The establishment of a mood disorders unit

Aust N Z J Psychiatry

Prognosis of depression in the elderly

Br J Psychiatry

Lessons from a mood disorders unit

Aust N Z J Psychiatry

White matter hyperintensity signals in psychiatric and nonpsychiatric subjects

Am J Psychiatry

White matter hyperintensities on MRI: Clinical and neuroanatomic correlates in the depressed elderly

J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci

Subcortical hyperintensity on magnetic resonance imaging: A comparison of normal and depressed elderly subjects

Am J Psychiatry

Quantitative cerebral anatomy in depression: A controlled magnetic resonance imaging study

Arch Gen Psychiatry

Alzheimer's disease, other dementias, depression and pseudodementia: Prevalence, incidence and three year outcome in Liverpool

Br J Psychiatry