Volumetric brain imaging studies in the elderly with mood disorders

Abstract

Volumetric neuroimaging studies of the elderly with affective disorders provide important insights into the underlying physiology of the illnesses. Advantages of studying the elderly include the ability to make various assessments and obtain a history differentiating subtypes of illness. However, challenges to studying the elderly include the heterogeneity of affective illnesses and confounds of medical comorbidity and medications. Volumetric assessments have provided important information in the neural mechanisms of mood regulation, especially in the overlap of cognitive disorders. This article reviews articles describing findings of volumetric analyses in elderly with unipolar depression and bipolar disorders, and compares and contrasts these findings with the larger volumetric research in affective disorders.

Managing Depression in Geriatric Populations

“…Recent interest in etiologic mechanisms of late life depression has also focused on structural changes in certain regions of the brain. Volumetric neuroimaging research currently suggests that elderly depressed have significant abnormalities in the frontal lobes (particularly the orbital frontal cortex), the temporal lobes (especially the hippocampus and amygdala), and basal ganglia-areas related to the cortical-striatal-pallidal-thalamuscortical pathway (see 57). These findings are largely consistent with MRI findings in younger depressed adults.…”