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The cerebral cortical appearance in depressed subjects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

R. J. Dolan*
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, London
S. P. Calloway
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, London
P. F. Thacker
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, London
A. H. Mann
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr R. J. Dolan, Department of Psychological Medicine, The National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG.

Synopsis

This paper describes a comparison of the cerebral cortical appearance of 101 patients with a history of clinical depression and 52 control subjects. An age-related increase in sulcal widening was evident in both groups. However, after controlling for age, the patients were found to differ from control subjects in two respects: they had a greater amount of sulcal widening, most noticeably in the frontal and temporal areas; and there was a positive correlation between increasing sulcal widening and increasing lateral ventricular size not found in the control subjects. Patients with a past history of treatment by electroconvulsive therapy showed more sulcal widening in the parietal and occipital areas than those not so treated.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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