Takami Hiroshi, Okamoto Yasumasa, Yamashita Hidehisa, Okada Go, Yamawaki Shigeto
Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Division of Frontier Medical Science, Programs for Biomedical Research, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, Kasumi, Hiroshima, Japan.
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2007 Jul;15(7):594-603. doi: 10.1097/01.JGP.0b013e31802ea919.
Previous studies have suggested that, in elderly patients, prior depression plays a role in the recurrence of depression. The aim of this study was to investigate cerebral brain function in recovered depressed elderly and investigate the relationship between this brain function and the number of depressive episodes.
Twenty elderly depressive patients in recovery and 10 healthy volunteers were included in this study. The depressive patients were divided into those who had experienced a single depressive episode and those who had experienced multiple episodes. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed in each participant during a verbal fluency task. The data were analyzed using statistical parametric mapping.
Activation in the anterior cingulate cortex was significantly attenuated in patients who had experienced multiple depressive episodes, compared with the other two groups. There were no significant differences in areas of activation between patients with a single depressive episode and healthy volunteers.
These findings suggest that attenuated activation in the anterior cingulate cortex may be associated with multiple episodes of depression in the elderly and with the vulnerability to cycling or recurrence.
先前的研究表明，在老年患者中，既往抑郁症在抑郁症复发中起作用。本研究的目的是调查康复后的老年抑郁症患者的脑功能，并研究这种脑功能与抑郁发作次数之间的关系。
本研究纳入了20名康复的老年抑郁症患者和10名健康志愿者。将抑郁症患者分为经历过单次抑郁发作的患者和经历过多次发作的患者。在每个参与者进行言语流畅性任务期间进行功能磁共振成像。使用统计参数映射对数据进行分析。
与其他两组相比，经历过多次抑郁发作的患者前扣带回皮层的激活明显减弱。单次抑郁发作的患者和健康志愿者之间的激活区域没有显著差异。
这些发现表明，前扣带回皮层激活减弱可能与老年人的多次抑郁发作以及循环或复发的易感性有关。
