title: Reduced right posterior hippocampal volume in women with recurrent familial pure depressive disorder.
abstract: Volumetric changes in mood-relevant distributed limbic/paralimbic structures have been reported in the recent literature on the course of mood disorders. Patients with unipolar and bipolar disorders have been found to have smaller hippocampal and anterior cingulate volumes. We examined hippocampal, amygdalar and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) volumes in female patients with recurrent familial pure depressive disorder (rFPDD). We used semi-automated software for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the volumes of the hippocampus, amygdala, ACC and subgenual prefrontal cortex (SGPFC) in 15 female patients with familial recurrent major depression (MD) and 15 healthy female subjects. Analysis of covariance, with whole brain volume as covariate, was used to compare volumetric measurements in the two groups. Volumes of the right hippocampal body and tail were significantly smaller in female patients with familial depressive disorder than in healthy subjects. Our data provide evidence of structural lateralized hippocampal body and tail abnormalities in women with familial history and recurrent episodes of depression. Although global reduction of hippocampal volume has been widely reported, data on lateralized regional reductions in familial recurrent depression had not been previously reported. Reduced volume of the right posterior hippocampus could be a structural endophenotype for recurrent depressive disorders in women.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, ULSS20, Verona, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nifosì
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Toffanin
authors.forename: Halima
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Follador
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zonta
authors.forename: Giordano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Padovan
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pigato
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Carollo
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ermani
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Amistà
authors.forename: Giulia Ida
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Perini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000473:pathology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric