title: Reciprocal effects of antidepressant treatment on activity and connectivity of the mood regulating circuit: an FMRI study.
abstract: It has been hypothesized that one of the effects of antidepressants is to increase functional connectivity between the cortical mood-regulating and the limbic mood-generating regions. One consequence of this antidepressant effect is thought to be decreased limbic activation in response to negative emotional stimuli. Twelve unmedicated unipolar depressed patients and 11 closely matched healthy comparison subjects completed two magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning sessions at baseline and after 6 weeks. Depressed patients received treatment with sertraline between the two sessions. During each MRI session, subjects completed a resting state functional connectivity scan and a conventional block-design negative vs. neutral pictures regional brain activation scan. After 6 weeks of sertraline treatment resting state, functional connectivity between the ACC and limbic regions increased while limbic activation in response to negative versus neutral pictures decreased. The results of this study are consistent with the hypothesis that antidepressant treatment has reciprocal effects on corticolimbic functional connectivity and limbic activation in response to emotional stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. aanand@iupui.edu
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anand
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: Mark J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Lowe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D004644:Emotions / Q000187:drug effects*; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000098:blood supply / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008032:Limbic System / Q000098:blood supply / Q000187:drug effects; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008875:Middle Aged; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D020280:Sertraline / Q000627:therapeutic use*