Altered white matter microstructure in adolescents with major depression: a preliminary study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Major depressive disorder (MDD) occurs frequently in adolescents, but the neurobiology of depression in youth is poorly understood. Structural neuroimaging studies in both adult and pediatric populations have implicated frontolimbic neural networks in the pathophysiology of MDD. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which measures white matter (WM) microstructure, is a promising tool for examining neural connections and how they may be abnormal in MDD.

Method

We used two separate approaches to analyze DTI data in adolescents with MDD (n = 14) compared with healthy volunteers (n = 14).

Results

The first, hypothesis-driven approach was to use probabilistic tractography to delineate tracts arising from the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Adolescents with M

SUBMITTER: Cullen KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2909686 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature