The initial research proposal that anchors this application address brain morphometry in geriatric depression. Depression in the elderly is a prevalent mental health problem, associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Clinical data describing greater cognitive impairment and neurodegenerative progression in geriatric depressives have suggested that underlying structural brain changes may mediate late-life affective disturbances. Furthermore, converging evidence implicating basal ganglia and left anterior cortical and subcortical regions in mood disorders emphasize the importance of in vivo assessment of these brain regions in major depression. However, confounded by unreliable and less precise methodologies, existing brain neuroimaging studies of ventriculomegaly, cortical atrophy, and subcortical """"""""hyperintensities"""""""" have yielded inconsistent findings. At Long Island Jewish Medical Center, MRI techniques employing 3D gradient echo sequences in conjunction with a semi-automated computer mensuration system have allowed highly reliable and accurate volumetric analyses of brain structures in several neuropsychiatric conditions. However, this technology has not been applied in geriatric depressed patients. This project will compare volumes of specific brain, including basal ganglia, structures in carefully diagnosed elderly patients with major depression and age- matched controls. Exciting new knowledge about structural abnormalities in the brains of late-life depressives should provide important information about possible etiopathogenetic mechanisms of affective illness.
