Cerebellar volume change in response to electroconvulsive therapy in patients with major depression.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is remarkably effective in severe major depressive disorder (MDD). Growing evidence has accumulated for brain structural and functional changes in response to ECT, primarily within cortico-limbic regions that have been considered in current neurobiological models of MDD. Despite increasing evidence for important cerebellar contributions to affective, cognitive and attentional processes, investigations on cerebellar effects of ECT in depression are yet lacking. In this study, using cerebellum-optimized voxel-based analysis methods, we investigated cerebellar volume in 12 MDD patients who received right-sided unilateral ECT. 16 healthy controls (HC) were included. Structural MRI data was acquired before and after ECT and controls were scanned once. Baseline structural differences in MDD compared to HC were located within the "cognitive cerebellum" and remained unchanged with intervention. ECT led to gray matter volume increase of left cerebellar area VIIa crus I, a region ascribed to the "affective/limbic cerebellum". The effects of ECT on cerebellar structure correlated with overall symptom relief. These findings provide preliminary evidence that structural change of the cerebellum in response to ECT may be related to the treatment's antidepressant effects.
Department of General Psychiatry at the Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University, Germany.
Malte S
MS
Depping
Department of General Psychiatry at the Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University, Germany.
Henrike M
HM
Nolte
Department of General Psychiatry at the Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
Dusan
D
Hirjak
Department of General Psychiatry at the Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University, Germany.
Elisa
E
Palm
Department of Anaesthesiology, Heidelberg University, Germany.
Stefan
S
Hofer
Department of Radiology, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland.
Bram
B
Stieltjes
Medical Image Computing Group, Division of Medical and Biological Informatics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
Klaus
K
Maier-Hein
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medical Sciences (DISM), University of Udine, Italy.
Fabio
F
Sambataro
Department of General Psychiatry at the Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany. Electronic address: christian.wolf@uni-heidelberg.de.
Robert C
RC
Wolf
Department of General Psychiatry at the Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University, Germany.
Philipp A
PA
Thomann
D000328:Adult; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D004565:Electroconvulsive Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016896:Treatment Outcome
Cerebellar volume; Cerebellum; Depression; ECT; Electro-convulsive therapy