Structural abnormalities in brain magnetic resonance images of depressed children.
OBJECTIVE
Brain magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of 65 children and adolescents who were hospitalized with depressive disorders (DD) were compared with the brain MRIs of 18 hospitalized psychiatric controls (PC) without a depressive disorder.


METHODS
Volumetric analyses were used to measure frontal lobe volumes (FLV), lateral ventricular volumes (VV), and total cerebral volumes (CV) for all subjects. To correct for differences in absolute cerebral volume associated with different body and head size, the ratios of FLV/CV and VV/CV were used to compare differences between the two groups. A multivariate analysis was used to control for the effects of several independent variables (age, sex, diagnosis).


RESULTS
Significant differences were seen in the FLV/CV ratio and the VV/CV ratio when the results were compared between the two groups (DD versus PC). The DD group had a significantly smaller FLV/CV ratio (t = 2.148, df = 79, p = .035) and a significantly larger VV/CV ratio (t = -2.093, df = 79, p = .040).


CONCLUSIONS
The findings are consistent with previous reports in depressed adults and may implicate the frontal lobes in the pathogenesis of early-onset depressive disorders.
Steingard
R J
RJ
Psychopharmacology Clinic, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Renshaw
P F
PF
Yurgelun-Todd
D
D
Appelmans
K E
KE
Lyoo
I K
IK
Shorrock
K L
KL
Bucci
J P
JP
Cesena
M
M
Abebe
D
D
Zurakowski
D
D
Poussaint
T Y
TY
Barnes
P
P
D000293:Adolescent; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000002:abnormalities*; D002552:Cerebral Ventricles / Q000002:abnormalities*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales