Lack of Neuropsychological Effects Following Short-term Subcallosal Cingulate Gyrus Deep Brain Stimulation in Treatment-resistant Depression: a Randomised Crossover Study

Overview

Journal BMJ Ment Health

Specialties Psychiatry
Psychology

Date 2025 Feb 28

PMID 40021211

Authors

Fatemeh Gholamali Nezhad

Vanessa K Tassone

Yuelee Khoo

Michelle Wu

Qiaowei Lin

Ilya Demchenko

Reinhard Janssen-Aguilar

Amanda K Ceniti

Sakina J Rizvi

Wendy Lou

Peter Giacobbe

Sidney H Kennedy

Andres M Lozano

Mary Pat McAndrews

Venkat Bhat

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The subcallosal cingulate gyrus (SCG) is integral to cognitive function and mood regulation. Open-label SCG deep brain stimulation (DBS) studies demonstrate improvement or stabilisation of cognitive function in treatment-resistant depression (TRD).

Objective: This randomised controlled study aims to evaluate the neuropsychological effects of SCG-DBS.

Methods: 35 participants with TRD received active or sham stimulation over two 3-month periods. A neuropsychological battery was administered to assess processing speed, learning and memory, and cognitive flexibility. Composite measures were derived for each domain after Period I. A mixed model for repeated measures analysis was performed for each test, with further analysis of significant measures to determine sustainability after Period II.

Findings: No significant differences in changes in depression scores were observed between groups. There were no significant deteriorations in cognitive performance following active SCG-DBS. Category Fluency Test performance improved after 3 months of active SCG-DBS (p=0.002); however, this was non-significant after correcting for multiple comparisons and was not observed after Period II (p0.615).

Conclusion And Implications: While no cognitive deterioration was observed following SCG-DBS, significant improvements in cognitive function were not evident. There may be a transient enhancement in processing speed; however, this effect is not fully understood. Future studies should include larger cohorts and extended stimulation periods to explore the long-term effects of SCG-DBS in TRD and the sustainability of improvements in cognitive domains.

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