title: Reduced anterior cingulate gray matter volume in treatment-naïve clinically depressed adolescents.
abstract: Adolescent depression is associated with increased risk for suicidality, social and educational impairment, smoking, substance use, obesity, and depression in adulthood. It is of relevance to further our insight in the neurobiological mechanisms underlying this disorder in the developing brain, as this may be essential to optimize treatment and prevention of adolescent depression and its negative clinical trajectories. The equivocal findings of the limited number of studies on neural abnormalities in depressed youth stress the need for further neurobiological investigation of adolescent depression. We therefore performed a voxel-based morphometry study of the hippocampus, amygdala, superior temporal gyrus, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in 26 treatment-naïve, clinically depressed adolescents and 26 pair-wise matched healthy controls. Additionally, an exploratory whole-brain analysis was performed. Clinically depressed adolescents showed a volume reduction of the bilateral dorsal ACC compared to healthy controls. However, no association was found between gray matter volume of the ACC and clinical severity scores for depression or anxiety. Our finding of a smaller ACC in clinically depressed adolescents is consistent with literature on depressed adults. Future research is needed to investigate if gray matter abnormalities precede or follow clinical depression in adolescents.
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands ; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, The Netherlands ; Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors: Justine Nienke
authors: JN
authors: Pannekoek
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands ; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, The Netherlands.
authors: Steven J A
authors: SJ
authors: van der Werff
authors: Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, The Netherlands ; Curium-LUMC, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands ; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors: Bianca G
authors: BG
authors: van den Bulk
authors: Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, The Netherlands ; Curium-LUMC, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors: Natasja D J
authors: ND
authors: van Lang
authors: Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, The Netherlands ; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands ; Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors: Serge A R B
authors: SA
authors: Rombouts
authors: Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, The Netherlands ; Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors: Mark A
authors: MA
authors: van Buchem
authors: Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, The Netherlands ; Curium-LUMC, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors: Robert R J M
authors: RR
authors: Vermeiren
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands ; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, The Netherlands.
authors: Nic J A
authors: NJ
authors: van der Wee
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001284:Atrophy; D003863:Depression / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000473:pathology*; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: Adolescents; Anterior cingulate cortex; Anxiety; Depression; MRI; Voxel-based morphometry