Effects of electroconvulsive therapy on amygdala function in major depression - a longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
Psychol Med
; 47(12): 2166-2176, 2017 Sep.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28397635
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is one of the most effective treatments for severe depression. However, little is known regarding brain functional processes mediating ECT effects.METHOD:
In a non-randomized prospective study, functional magnetic resonance imaging data during the automatic processing of subliminally presented emotional faces were obtained twice, about 6 weeks apart, in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) before and after treatment with ECT (ECT, n = 24). Additionally, a control sample of MDD patients treated solely with pharmacotherapy (MED, n = 23) and a healthy control sample (HC, n = 22) were obtained.RESULTS:
Before therapy, both patient groups equally showed elevated amygdala reactivity to sad faces compared with HC. After treatment, a decrease in amygdala activity to negative stimuli was discerned in both patient samples indicating a normalization of amygdala function, suggesting mechanisms potentially unspecific for ECT. Moreover, a decrease in amygdala activity to sad faces was associated with symptomatic improvements in the ECT sample (r spearman = -0.48, p = 0.044), and by tendency also for the MED sample (r spearman = -0.38, p = 0.098). However, we did not find any significant association between pre-treatment amygdala function to emotional stimuli and individual symptom improvement, neither for the ECT sample, nor for the MED sample.CONCLUSIONS:
In sum, the present study provides first results regarding functional changes in emotion processing due to ECT treatment using a longitudinal design, thus validating and extending our knowledge gained from previous treatment studies. A limitation was that ECT patients received concurrent medication treatment.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Imageamento por Ressonância Magnética
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Avaliação de Resultados em Cuidados de Saúde
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Transtorno Depressivo Maior
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Eletroconvulsoterapia
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Tonsila do Cerebelo
Tipo de estudo:
Clinical_trials
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Observational_studies
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Prognostic_studies
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Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adult
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Female
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Humans
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Male
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Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2017
Tipo de documento:
Article