title: Cortical thinning in patients with late-life minor depression.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Clinically significant minor depression is among the most common mental disorders in the elderly individuals and is associated with considerable medical and psychosocial morbidity. Despite its clinical impact, the biological basis of minor depression in the elderly individuals remains poorly understood. The purpose of our current study was to examine cortical thickness in a sample of patients with late-life minor depression and non-depressed comparison subjects using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Community.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients (n = 16; mean age = 76.2 ± 7.5) met modified DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) criteria for minor depression and were free of other brain diseases. Healthy comparison subjects (HC; n = 16) were of comparable age and gender distribution.
  
  
  METHODS
  All subjects were scanned on a 1.5-Tesla GE scanner and brain regions were outlined using Freesurfer Image Analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results show that patients with minor depression have cortical thinning in the right cingulate cortex compared to HC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings indicate that abnormalities in specific structures and associated neural circuitry may underlie minor and major depression in the elderly individuals and the pathophysiological abnormalities are comparable in major and less severe forms of the disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL. Electronic address: akumar@psych.uic.edu.
authors.forename: Anand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Olusola
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ajilore
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Aifeng
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pham
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Elderkin-Thompson
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D059906:Neuroimaging
keywords: Freesurfer; MRI; minor depression