Brain Structural Effects of Antidepressant Treatment in Major Depression

Depressive disorder is a very frequent and heterogeneous syndrome. Structural imaging techniques offer a useful tool in the comprehension of neurobiological alterations that concern depressive disorder. Altered brain structures in depressive disorder have been particularly located in the prefrontal cortex (medial prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex, OFC) and medial temporal cortex areas (hippocampus). These brain areas belong to a structural and functional network related to cognitive and emotional processes putatively implicated in depressive symptoms. These volumetric alterations may also represent biological predictors of response to pharmacological treatment. In this context, major findings of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, in relation to treatment response in depressive disorder, will here be presented and discussed. Keywords: amitriptyline, amygdala, cingulate, citalopram, doxepine, fluoxetine, fluxovamine, hippocampus, mirtazapine, paroxetine, prefrontal cortex, reboxetine, sertraline, trimipramine, venlafaxine.