Effects of electroconvulsive therapy on amygdala function in major depression: a longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging study
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
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.
Details
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2166-2176 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Psychological medicine |
Volume | 47 |
Issue number | 12 |
Publication status | Published - Sept 2017 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
Externally published | Yes |
External IDs
PubMed | 28397635 |
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Keywords
Sustainable Development Goals
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Keywords
- depression, electroconvulsive therapy, emotion processing, functional magnetic resonance imaging, Amygdala