Changes in brain function during negative emotion processing in the long-term course of depression.
Br J Psychiatry
; 221(2): 476-484, 2022 08.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35082002
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Relapses in major depression are frequent and are associated with a high burden of disease. Although short-term studies suggest a normalisation of depression-associated brain functional alterations directly after treatment, long-term investigations are sparse.AIMS:
To examine brain function during negative emotion processing in association with course of illness over a 2-year span.METHOD:
In this prospective case-control study, 72 in-patients with current depression and 42 healthy controls were investigated during a negative emotional face processing paradigm, at baseline and after 2 years. According to their course of illness during the study interval, patients were divided into subgroups (n = 25 no-relapse, n = 47 relapse). The differential changes in brain activity were investigated by a group × time analysis of covariance for the amygdala, hippocampus, insula and at whole-brain level.RESULTS:
A significant relapse × time interaction emerged within the amygdala (PTFCE-FWE = 0.011), insula (PTFCE-FWE = 0.001) and at the whole-brain level mainly in the temporal and prefrontal cortex (PTFCE-FWE = 0.027), resulting from activity increases within the no-relapse group, whereas in the relapse group, activity decreased during the study interval. At baseline, the no-relapse group showed amygdala, hippocampus and insula hypoactivity compared with healthy controls and the relapse group.CONCLUSIONS:
This study reveals course of illness-associated activity changes in emotion processing areas. Patients in full remission show a normalisation of their baseline hypo-responsiveness to the activation level of healthy controls after 2 years. Brain function during emotion processing could further serve as a potential predictive marker for future relapse.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Depression
/
Depressive Disorder, Major
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Br J Psychiatry
Year:
2022
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Germany