Frontal Haemodynamic Responses in Depression and the Effect of Electroconvulsive Therapy

Overview

Journal J Psychopharmacol

Publisher Sage Publications

Specialty Pharmacology

Date 2019 Jun 26

PMID 31237182

Citations 5

Authors

Darragh Downey

Sabrina Brigadoi

Liam Trevithick

Rebecca Elliott

Clare Elwell

R Hamish McAllister-Williams

Ian M Anderson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Reduced frontal cortex metabolism and blood flow in depression may be associated with low mood and cognitive impairment. Further reduction has been reported during a course of electroconvulsive therapy but it is not known if this relates to mood and cognitive changes caused by electroconvulsive therapy.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to investigate frontal function while undertaking cognitive tasks in depressed patients compared with healthy controls, and following electroconvulsive therapy in patients.

Methods: We measured frontal haemodynamic responses to a category verbal fluency task and a working memory N-back task using portable functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS) in 51 healthy controls and 18 severely depressed patients, 12 of whom were retested after the fourth treatment of a course of electroconvulsive therapy. Mood was assessed using the Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale and cognitive function using category Verbal Fluency from the Controlled Oral Word Association Test and Digit Span backwards.

Results: Compared to healthy controls, depressed patients had bilaterally lower frontal oxyhaemoglobin responses to the cognitive tasks, although this was only significant for the N-Back task where performance correlated inversely with depression severity in patients. After four electroconvulsive therapy treatments oxyhaemoglobin responses were further reduced during the Verbal Fluency task but the changes did not correlate with mood or cognitive changes.

Discussion: Our results confirmed a now extensive literature showing impaired frontal fNIRS oxyhaemoglobin responses to cognitive tasks in depression, and showed for the first time that these are further reduced during a course of electroconvulsive therapy. Further research is needed to investigate the biology and clinical utility of frontal fNIRS in psychiatric patients.

Citing Articles

Pilot Study of Cerebral Hemodynamics in Depressive Patient Under Electroconvulsive Therapy.

Wu Q, Sun W, Liu J, Zhang P Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2024; 20:2553-2567.

PMID: 39723117 PMC: 11668920. DOI: 10.2147/NDT.S499134.

Electroconvulsive therapy generates a postictal wave of spreading depolarization in mice and humans.

Rosenthal Z, Majeski J, Somarowthu A, Quinn D, Lindquist B, Putt M bioRxiv. 2024; .

PMID: 39554135 PMC: 11565954. DOI: 10.1101/2024.10.31.621357.

Kullback-Leibler Divergence of Sleep-Wake Patterns Related with Depressive Severity in Patients with Epilepsy.

Liu M, Jiang J, Feng Y, Cai Y, Ding J, Wang X Brain Sci. 2023; 13(5).

PMID: 37239295 PMC: 10216093. DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13050823.

Hotspots and trends in fNIRS disease research: A bibliometric analysis.

Ye X, Peng L, Sun N, He L, Yang X, Zhou Y Front Neurosci. 2023; 17:1097002.

PMID: 36937686 PMC: 10017540. DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1097002.

Investigation of Neurofunctional Changes Over the Course of Electroconvulsive Therapy.

Gruzman R, Hartling C, Domke A, Stippl A, Carstens L, Bajbouj M Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2022; 26(1):20-31.

PMID: 36173403 PMC: 9850659. DOI: 10.1093/ijnp/pyac063.

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