PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Opel, Nils
AU  - Narr, Katherine L.
AU  - Abbott, Christopher
AU  - Argyelan, Miklos
AU  - Espinoza, Randall
AU  - Emsell, Louise
AU  - Bouckaert, Filip
AU  - Sienaert, Pascal
AU  - Vandenbulcke, Mathieu
AU  - Nordanskog, Pia
AU  - Repple, Jonathan
AU  - Kavakbasi, Erhan
AU  - Jorgensen, Martin B.
AU  - Paulson, Olaf B.
AU  - Hanson, Lars G.
AU  - Dols, Annemieke
AU  - van Exel, Eric
AU  - Oudega, Mardien L.
AU  - Takamiya, Akihiro
AU  - Kishimoto, Taishiro
AU  - Ousdal, Olga Therese
AU  - Haavik, Jan
AU  - Hammar, Åsa
AU  - Oedegaard, Ketil Joachim
AU  - Kessler, Ute
AU  - Bartsch, Hauke
AU  - Dale, Anders M.
AU  - Baune, Bernhard T.
AU  - Dannlowski, Udo
AU  - Oltedal, Leif
AU  - Redlich, Ronny
TI  - Elevated body weight modulates subcortical volume change and associated clinical response following electroconvulsive therapy
AID  - 10.1503/jpn.200176
DP  - 2021 Jul 01
TA  - Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
PG  - E418--E426
VI  - 46
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jpn.ca/content/46/4/E418.short
4100  - http://jpn.ca/content/46/4/E418.full
SO  - JPN2021 Jul 01; 46
AB  - Background: Obesity is a frequent somatic comorbidity of major depression, and it has been associated with worse clinical outcomes and brain structural abnormalities. Converging evidence suggests that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) induces both clinical improvements and increased subcortical grey matter volume in patients with depression. However, it remains unknown whether increased body weight modulates the clinical response and structural neuroplasticity that occur with ECT.Methods: To address this question, we conducted a longitudinal investigation of structural MRI data from the Global ECT-MRI Research Collaboration (GEMRIC) in 223 patients who were experiencing a major depressive episode (10 scanning sites). Structural MRI data were acquired before and after ECT, and we assessed change in subcortical grey matter volume using FreeSurfer and Quarc.Results: Higher body mass index (BMI) was associated with a significantly lower increase in subcortical grey matter volume following ECT. We observed significant negative associations between BMI and change in subcortical grey matter volume, with pronounced effects in the thalamus and putamen, where obese participants showed increases in grey matter volume that were 43.3% and 49.6%, respectively, of the increases found in participants with normal weight. As well, BMI significantly moderated the association between subcortical grey matter volume change and clinical response to ECT. We observed no significant association between BMI and clinical response to ECT.Limitations: Because only baseline BMI values were available, we were unable to study BMI changes during ECT and their potential association with clinical and grey matter volume change.Conclusion: Future studies should take into account the relevance of body weight as a modulator of structural neuroplasticity during ECT treatment and aim to further explore the functional relevance of this novel finding.