Depression Treatment Changes Brain Structure in 6 Weeks

Adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) showed increased brain connectivity after about 6 weeks of inpatient depression treatment, according to a study presented at the European College for Neuropsychopharmacology Congress in Vienna.

“We found that treatment for depression changed the infrastructure of the brain, which goes against previous expectations,” said lead researcher and study presenter Jonathan Repple, MD, professor of predictive psychiatry at the University of Frankfurt in Germany. “Treated patients showed a greater number of connections than they had shown before treatment. Moreover, those who showed the most response to treatment had developed a greater number of new connections than those who showed little response.”

The research, conducted at the University of Muenster, included 109 patients who received inpatient treatment for major depressive disorder and 55 healthy controls. Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure brain connectivity before patients received depression treatment, which spanned electroconvulsive therapy, psychological therapy, medication, or a combination of all therapies. Patients underwent MRI scans again after approximately 6 weeks of treatment.

In addition to increased structural connectivity following treatment in patients overall, patients with a greater response showed an even greater increase in brain connectivity.

“A second scan showing that there are no time effects in healthy controls supports our findings that we see something that is related to the disease and, more importantly, the treatment of this disease,” said Dr Repple.

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The findings offer hope to patients who believe their condition is “set in stone” in their brain and unlikely to change, the researcher said.

“We found these changes took place over a period of only around 6 weeks; we were surprised at the speed of response,” he remarked. “We don’t have an explanation as to how these changes take place, or why they should happen with such different forms of treatment.”

“The fact that the observed changes over time could not be associated with a form of treatment is a pity but, as the authors themselves suggest, a topic for further research,” said Eric Ruhe, MD, PhD, of Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, who was not involved in the study. “First, these results should be replicated in independent samples, which hopefully is going to happen soon. Second, further elaboration on this approach would be daunting and should be supported firmly as this work might help to bridge the current gap between neuroscience and evidence-based patient care.”

Reference

Scientists discover structure of adult brain – previously thought to be fixed - is changed by treatment. News release. European College of Neuropsychopharmacology; October 17, 2022. Accessed October 28, 2022.