Prefrontal cortex and amygdala volume in first minor or major depressive episode after cancer diagnosis.
BACKGROUND
Major and minor depressive episodes in cancer patients are frequent and are frequently seen as the first depressive episode in a patient's life. However, the neurological basis of these depressive episodes remains largely unknown.


METHODS
Subjects were 51 breast cancer survivors (BCS) who had no history of any depressive episode before the cancer diagnosis (11 BCS with a history of a first minor depressive episode after cancer diagnosis, 11 BCS with a history of a first major depressive episode after cancer diagnosis, and 29 BCS with no history of any depressive episode after cancer diagnosis). We analyzed the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and amygdala volumes in a 1.5-Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner. We characterized the structural correlates of depression using two complementary approaches. The first was voxel-based morphometry (VBM) that allowed us to scan the entire brain for reactive gray matter deficit. The second was classical volumetry focusing on the amygdala.


RESULTS
Voxel-based morphometry revealed no brain region, including PFC, for which volume was significantly different among the three groups. There were trend-level differences in the left amygdala volume in the manual tracing method among the three groups. The left amygdala volumes in the subjects with a first minor and/or major depressive episode were significantly smaller than in those with no history of any depressive episode.


CONCLUSIONS
It might be suggested that amygdala volume was associated with a first minor and/or major depressive episode after cancer diagnosis.
Yoshikawa
Eisho
E
Psycho-Oncology Division, National Cancer Center Research Institute East, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan.
Matsuoka
Yutaka
Y
Yamasue
Hidenori
H
Inagaki
Masatoshi
M
Nakano
Tomohito
T
Akechi
Tatsuo
T
Kobayakawa
Makoto
M
Fujimori
Maiko
M
Nakaya
Naoki
N
Akizuki
Nobuya
N
Imoto
Shigeru
S
Murakami
Koji
K
Kasai
Kiyoto
K
Uchitomi
Yosuke
Y
D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000473:pathology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality; D003710:Demography; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology*