Paper Publication: MRI Predictors of Treatment Response in Late-Life Depression

In older adults, depression not only results in more years lived with disability than any other disease, but it also carries additional risk for suicide, medical comorbidities, and family care-giving burden. Because it can take many months to identify an effective treatment regimen, it is of upmost importance to shorten the window of time and identify early on what medication(s) and dosages will work effectively for individuals suffering from depression. Late-life depression (LLD) has been associated with greater burden of age-related changes, including atrophy, white matter ischemic changes, and alterations in functional connectivity (FC). Depression in midlife has been shown to alter affective reactivity and regulation, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in LLD have replicated the same abnormalities. Effective treatment can normalize these alterations. This article provides a review of the current literature using structural and functional neuroimaging to identify magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) predictors of treatment response in LLD. The majority of the literature on structural MRI has focused on the vascular depression hypothesis, and studies support the view that loss of brain volume and white matter integrity is associated with poorer treatment outcomes. Studies using fMRI have reported that lower task-based activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and limbic regions is associated with poorer outcome. These imaging markers may be integrated into clinical decision-making to better treatment outcomes in the future.

Aizenstein HJ, Khalaf A, Walker SE, Andreescu C. Magnetic resonance imaging predictors of treatment response in late-life depression. J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 2014;27(1):24-32. doi:10.1177/0891988713516541

The full published paper can be found here