MEDIA ADVISORY: Does Depression Dampen Memories?

Largest imaging study of its kind finds distinctive signature of depression: a smaller memory center in the brain  

Contact: Robert Perkins, (213) 220-0017 or perkinsr@usc.edu

WHAT: The largest study to date of depression with brain imaging. Online at http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/mp201569a.html

Findings include:

• Brain differences are greatest in the hippocampus, a key brain region associated with memory
• Brain differences relative to healthy patients are greater in long-term depression, or in patients diagnosed at a younger age
• Differences are not apparent at the time of diagnosis
• Early treatment may be able to prevent some changes
• Next: a broader study on which treatments appear to resist tissue loss

WHO: Researchers from an international brain imaging research consortium, known as “ENIGMA,” led by senior authors Paul Thompson, co-founder of ENIGMA and Derrek Hibar, both of the USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute.

“Depressed people consistently had less brain tissue in the brain’s memory centers,” said Thompson.

“We found greater brain abnormalities the longer people have been ill,” said Hibar. “Early intervention is vital in treating depression before brain changes occur.”

WHEN: Published on July 2, 2015

WHERE: The medical journal Molecular Psychiatry

WHY: The study is part of a global initiative, started by U.S., European, and Australian researchers in 2009, that now brings together scientists from over 33 countries to discover factors that help or harm the living brain. The ENIGMA imaging studies bring new insight to clinical research and to the discovery of factors that resist devastating brain diseases.

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