Persistent depression shrinks the human brains

center responsible for emotions and memory that

might lead to changes in a persons behavior and
even losing their identity, a global interdisciplinary
study has revealed.
TagsHealth, Biology, Psychology, Medicine, Science
A new global study has finally proven that brain
damage is a consequence of repeated depression
instead of being its prerequisite or a predisposing
factor. This conclusion draws the final line under the
decades of unconfirmed hypothesizing.
Some shrinkage of the brain has long been
connected to depression, although without clear
evidence, as variances in types of depression,
treatment methods as well as a small sample size
have led to inconsistent results.
Now, the largest international survey, which brought
together the efforts of 15 research institutes from
the US, UK and Australia and allowed scientists to
combine the results of their smaller studies, revealed
that recurrent depression shrinks the hippocampus
the so-called emotional center of the brain, which is
a part of the brains limbic system.
This study confirms in a very large sample a
finding thats been reported on quite a few occasions
the fact that the hippocampus is particularly
vulnerable to depression, said Philip Mitchell,
scientia professor & head of the School of Psychiatry
at University of South New Wales, Australia, who
took part in the research.
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Apart from forming emotions, the hippocampus is

also responsible for forming new memories and
connecting emotions to those memories as well as is
involved in long-term memory processes.
While the hippocampus plays such an important role
in the brains functioning, its damage could
engender serious consequences.
Your whole sense of self depends on continuously
understanding who you are in the world your state
of memory is not about just knowing how to do
Sudoku or remembering your password its the
whole concept we hold of ourselves, said professor
Ian Hickie, from the University of Sydneys brain and
mind research institute, who led the Australian arm
of the study.
When you shrink the hippocampus, you dont just
change memory, you change all sorts of other
behaviors associated with that so shrinkage is
associated with a loss of function, he adds.
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The cooperation of 15 research institutes allowed the
scientists to conduct a cross-sectional analysis of
9,000 peoples brain scans.
The research team used magnetic resonance imaged
(MRI) brain scans and clinical data from 1,728 people
with major depression and 7,199 healthy individuals,
combining 15 datasets from Europe, the US and
Australia, as well as samples obtained from an
international consortium studying psychiatric
disorders, the ENIGMA group.
The results of the study were published in Molecular
Psychiatry on June 30.

The scientists found that people who had a smaller

hippocampus suffered from recurrent episodes of
depression or got depressed at an early age (before
the age of 21). Such people accounted for 65
percent of the depressed study participants.

Hickie said the studys findings suggested that

chronic depression is what does the damage.
I think this resolves for good the issue that
persistent experiences of depression hurt the
brain, he said.
Those who have only ever had one episode do not
have a smaller hippocampus, so its not a
predisposing factor but a consequence of the illness
state, he said, adding that the more episodes of
depression a person had, the greater the reduction
in hippocampus size.
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The studys findings emphasized the importance of
the early treatment of depression, especially in
teenagers and young adults.
So recurrent or persistent depression does more
harm to the hippocampus the more you leave it
untreated, said Hickie, highlighting that identifying
and treating depression as soon as it first occurs was
essential to prevent brain damage.
The research also showed that patients taking
antidepressants had a larger hippocampus, thus
indicating the possible protective effect of those
medicines.

There is a lot of nonsense said about

antidepressants that constantly perpetuates the
evils of them, but there is a good bit of evidence that
they have a protective effect, said Hickie, although
he emphasized that antidepressants are not the
only treatment as a broad range of treatments that
should be explored with psychotherapy explored
as the first line of treatment, not medicines.
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Paul Fitzgerald, professor of psychiatry at Monash
University, Melbourne, said that the results of the
study had a fundamental scientific value.
I dont think theres anything thats really,
fundamentally going to change overnight but its
an important part of the jigsaw puzzle to put
together a better understanding of whats going on
in depression, he said.
Fitzgerald added that researchers would continue the
studies by measuring the volumes of individual
regions within the hippocampus, as it would provide
greater capacity to draw conclusions.
The research team also claimed that some evidence
indicates that the damage inflicted to the brain by
depression could be reversible with the right
treatment.
Other studies have demonstrated reversibility, and
the hippocampus is one of the unique areas of the
brain that rapidly generates new connections
between cells, and what are lost here are
connections between cells rather than the cells
themselves, Hickie said.

He also emphasized that treating depression

effectively does not just mean medicines. Social
interventions are just as important.