Cerebral perfusion correlates of depressed mood
Ebmeier KP., Cavanagh JTO., Moffoot APR., Glabus MF., O'Carroll RE., Goodwin GM.
<jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>The spontaneous diurnal variation of mood and other symptoms provides a substrate for the examination of the relationship between symptoms and regional brain activation in depression.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Method</jats:title><jats:p>Twenty unipolar depressed patients with diurnal variation of mood were examined at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. with neuropsychological measures, clinical ratings and single photon emission tomography (SPET). Brain perfusion maps were spatially transformed into standard stereotactic space and compared pixel-by-pixel. A parametric (correlational) analysis was used to examine the relationship between symptom severity and brain perfusion, both between and within subjects.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Global depression severity and an independent ‘vital’ depression factor were associated in subjects with increased perfusion in cingulate and other paralimbic areas. In addition there was a probable association between an increase in an anxious-depression factor and reduced frontal neocortical perfusion.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>Depressive symptom changes are associated with metabolic changes in the cingulate gyrus and associated paralimbic structures.</jats:p></jats:sec>