Original articleHippocampal volume, memory, and cortisol status in major depressive disorder: effects of treatment☆
Section snippets
Subjects
Outpatient depressed and healthy control subjects, 18–60 years of age, were recruited through newspaper advertisements and flyers and gave written informed consent before participation in this study. The study was approved by the Human Investigation Committee at the Yale University School of Medicine. After an initial psychiatric interview, all subjects underwent a physical examination and screening tests that included a complete blood count, plasma electrolytes, β-HCG and creatine, liver
Results
Sociodemographic and clinical information of depressed patients and healthy subjects are given in Table 1. Thirty-eight depressed patients (15 men, 23 women) and 33 healthy subjects (12 men, 21 women) formed the study sample. The mean age of the depressed patients was significantly higher than that of healthy subjects (41 ± 11 vs. 34 ± 10 years; F = 6.76, df = 1,69 p = .01). The height, weight, and education in years were not significantly different between patients and subjects. The gender
Discussion
In this study, patients with unipolar MDD demonstrated specific impairment in verbal memory, despite normal hippocampal volume. Urinary free cortisol (UFC) excretion and plasma cortisol levels in depressed patients were unrelated to either memory deficits or hippocampal volume. Immediate and delayed verbal memory improved and UFC decreased after successful treatment with antidepressant drugs without an accompanying increase in hippocampal volume.
A major finding of our study was the normal
Acknowledgements
We thank Sara Norris, M.P.H., for help with statistical analysis; Holly Giesen, B.A., for editorial assistance, Ryan Jerving, Ph.D., for help in preparing the manuscript, and Thomas Lam, M.D., for his contribution toward interrater reliability measurements for the hippocampus.
EV and GMA contributed equally to this paper.
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This study was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health grants MH-56120, MH-42088, MN-51761, and MH-58922; the Emory Conte Center for Early Life Stress; the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD); and an investigator-initiated research grant with Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals.