Regular Research ArticleA Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies in Late-Life Depression
Section snippets
Methods
Online searches of the databases EMBASE and MEDLINE were done in August 2010, using the keywords ([“magnetic resonance imaging” or “MRI”] and [“depress*”] and [“elderly” or “geriatric” or “late life” or “late onset” or “old age” or “older”]). Reference lists of included studies and relevant reviews were also searched for additional studies.
For the systematic review, studies were screened for journal articles published in English that used MRI to analyze group differences in the volume or shape
Results
Titles and abstracts of 743 identified citations were screened; 27 met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review. A flow diagram of the identification and attrition of studies is provided in Figure 1.
Participant and data acquisition details of included studies are given in Table 1, results of 26 ROI comparisons in Table 2, results of 5 VBM comparisons in Table 3, and results of the meta-analysis in Table 4.
Of the 26 ROI and 5 VBM group comparisons included in the systematic review, 12
Conclusions
We examined GM abnormalities in LLD in a systematic review and meta-analysis of MRI studies. With regard to ROI studies, the hippocampus was the most frequently studied structure. Volume reductions were detected in LLD in 7 of 15 comparisons and a meta-analysis of hippocampal ROI revealed a significant, but small, effect size. Although examined by fewer studies, meta-analyses also revealed significant volume reductions in the OFC, putamen and thalamus in LLD. The anatomy and effect sizes of
References (71)
Frontostriatal and limbic dysfunction in late-life depression
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry
(2002)- et al.
Neurobiology of emotion perception II: implications for major psychiatric disorders
Biol Psychiatry
(2003) - et al.
Frontal-subcortical neuronal circuits and clinical neuropsychiatry: an update
J Psychosom Res
(2002) - et al.
Statistical shape analysis of neuroanatomical structures based on medial models
Med Image Anal
(2003) - et al.
Voxel-based morphometry—the methods
Neuroimage
(2000) - et al.
A voxel-based morphometric study of ageing in 465 normal adult human brains
Neuroimage
(2001) - et al.
An evaluation of four automatic methods of segmenting the subcortical structures in the brain
Neuroimage
(2009) “Voxel-based morphometry” should not be used with imperfectly registered images
Neuroimage
(2001)- et al.
Magnetic resonance imaging studies in unipolar depression: systematic review and meta-regression analyses
Eur Neuropsychopharmacol
(2012) - et al.
Relationship between the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale in depressed elderly: a meta-analysis
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry
(2007)