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Relationship between progression of brain white matter changes and late-life depression: 3-year results from the LADIS study
The British Journal of Psychiatry, 07/03/2012
Clinical Article
Firbank MJ et al. – The results support the vascular depression hypothesis and implicate white matter changes as causal in the pathogenesis of late–life depression.
Methods- In a longitudinal multicentre pan-European study (Leukoaraiosis and Disability in the elderly, LADIS), participants aged over 64 underwent baseline magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and clinical assessments.
- Repeat scans were obtained at 3 years.
- Depressive outcomes were assessed in terms of depressive episodes and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS).
- Progression of WMC was measured using the modified Rotterdam Progression scale.
- Progression of WMC was significantly associated with incident depression during year 3 of the study (P = 0.002) and remained significant after controlling for transition to disability, baseline WMC and baseline history of depression.
- There was no significant association between progression of WMC and GDS score, and no significant relationship between progression of WMC and history of depression at baseline.