Reduced hippocampal volume correlates with executive dysfunctioning in major depression.
OBJECTIVE
Dysfunction of neuronal plasticity or remodelling seems to contribute to the pathopysiology of major depression and may cause the well-documented hippocampal changes in depression. We aimed to investigate whether reduced hippocampal volumes correlate with executive dysfunctioning or memory dysfunctioning or with depression severity.


METHODS
We recruited 34 inpatients with a previous or current episode of major depression from the department of psychiatry at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Germany. We examined the 34 patients and 34 healthy control subjects with structural high resolution MRI. We assessed cognitive functions with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and severity of depression with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale.


RESULTS
Hippocampal volumes and frontal lobe volumes were significantly smaller in patients, compared with healthy control subjects. Furthermore, lower hippocampal volumes were correlated with poorer performance in the WCST. No significant correlations were found between hippocampal volumes and RAVLT performance or severity of depression.


CONCLUSIONS
The present findings emphasize that patients with reduced hippocampal volumes show more executive dysfunctions than their counterparts. Thus, the mechanisms resulting in reduced hippocampal volumes seem to be related to the development of major depression.
Frodl
Thomas
T
Department of Psychiatry, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany. Thomas.Frodl@med.uni-muenchen.de
Schaub
Annette
A
Banac
Sandra
S
Charypar
Marketa
M
Jäger
Markus
M
Kümmler
Petra
P
Bottlender
Ronald
R
Zetzsche
Thomas
T
Born
Christine
C
Leinsinger
Gerda
G
Reiser
Maximilian
M
Möller
Hans-Jürgen
HJ
Meisenzahl
Eva M
EM
D000328:Adult; D001284:Atrophy; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008432:Mathematical Computing; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000473:pathology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012008:Recurrence; D012016:Reference Values; D013223:Statistics as Topic