RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Elevated body weight modulates subcortical volume change and associated clinical response following electroconvulsive therapy
JF Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
JO JPN
FD Canadian Medical Association
SP E418
OP E426
DO 10.1503/jpn.200176
VO 46
IS 4
A1 Nils Opel
A1 Katherine L. Narr
A1 Christopher Abbott
A1 Miklos Argyelan
A1 Randall Espinoza
A1 Louise Emsell
A1 Filip Bouckaert
A1 Pascal Sienaert
A1 Mathieu Vandenbulcke
A1 Pia Nordanskog
A1 Jonathan Repple
A1 Erhan Kavakbasi
A1 Martin B. Jorgensen
A1 Olaf B. Paulson
A1 Lars G. Hanson
A1 Annemieke Dols
A1 Eric van Exel
A1 Mardien L. Oudega
A1 Akihiro Takamiya
A1 Taishiro Kishimoto
A1 Olga Therese Ousdal
A1 Jan Haavik
A1 Åsa Hammar
A1 Ketil Joachim Oedegaard
A1 Ute Kessler
A1 Hauke Bartsch
A1 Anders M. Dale
A1 Bernhard T. Baune
A1 Udo Dannlowski
A1 Leif Oltedal
A1 Ronny Redlich
YR 2021
UL http://jpn.ca/content/46/4/E418.abstract
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.