title: Age of onset of depression and quantitative neuroanatomic measures: absence of specific correlates.
abstract: The purpose of our study was to examine the relationship between volumetric neuroanatomic measures and age of onset of illness in subjects with late-life major depression. Our sample was composed of 51 elderly subjects with Major Depressive Disorder who were scanned using a 1.5-tesla GE magnetic resonance imaging scanner with head coil. Absolute total and focal brain volumes were obtained together with quantified estimates of high intensity lesions. The relationship of these measures to onset age was examined using a regression while adjusting for subjects' current age and total intracranial volume. There was no significant linear relationship between age of onset of the first episode and any of the neuroanatomic measures examined. These data do not support the notion that neuroanatomical contributions to depression increase with a later age of onset of illness.
authors.affiliation: UCLA-Neuropsychiatric Institute, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1759, USA. akumar@mednet.ucla.edu
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bilker
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Udupa
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gottlieb
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male