SHARED SYMPTOMS,
COMMON TREATMENTS,
SIMILAR CAUSES?
Roger M.Pinder
APA 1994
Keller 1995
Clayton et al 1991
Coplan et al 1990
Consequences of anxiety
symptoms in depression
• More severe illness at baseline
• More psychosocial impairment
• Greater likelihood of chronic illness
• Poorer, slower response to treatment
• Increased use of health care
resources
• Greater likelihood of committing
suicide
Keller et al 1995
Fawcett 1988
Anxiety as Residual Symptom
of Depression
• Anxiety (both psychological and
somatic) is a common residual
symptom in depression1
• CT
• CBT
• IPT
Antidepressant drugs are effective
in anxiety disorders
• SSRIs (GAD, SAD, PTSD, OCD, Panic
Disorder)
• SNRIs (GAD)
• Mirtazapine (PTSD, Panic Disorder)
• Clomipramine (OCD)
• MAOIs (SAD)
But efficacy in anxiety disorders is
confined to those antidepressants
with a serotonergic component in
their pharmacology
And anxiolytics are generally not
effective in depressive disorders
• Benzodiazepines (used for insomnia and
anxiety symptoms in depression, but may
worsen response to antidepressants)
• Buspirone (only effective as augmentation
to antidepressants)
Anxiety and Depression:
Similar Causes?
Brain Structure in Mood and
Anxiety Disorders
• Volumetrics
– Increasing evidence that specific structures
demonstrate cellular loss as a function of
duration of depression and PTSD
– Growing evidence that all antidepressant
treatments and some anticonvulsants may
“regrow the brain” (synaptic plasticity or
neurogenesis)
Hippocampal Volume in Mood
and Anxiety Disorders
• Excessive glucocorticoid exposure
(hypercortisolemia) may result in
hippocampal atrophy in depression and
PTSD; 5-10% loss of volume
• Smaller hippocampal volume in
depression depends upon duration of
episodes; also found in PTSD
• Reduced volume linked to verbal
memory deficits in both disorders
Depression and neurodegeneration
Hippocampal volume and duration of
depressive episode
5800
Hippocampal volume ( mm3)
5300
R2 = 0.36
p = 0.002
4800
4300
3800
3300
2800
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Episode Duration (days)
Sheline et al. J. Neuroscience 1999
Hippocampal Volume,
Duration of Periods of MDD,
and Age
BDNF
Antidepressants
4
Left Brain
Right Brain
3
Left Hippocampus
Right Hippocampus
2