Antidepressant exposure may be neuroprotective

[HuckleB]

Antidepressant exposure may be neuroprotective

http://www.psychiatrysource.com/psychsource/News/article1726.htm

"Antidepressant treatment appears to protect against orbitofrontal cortex volume loss in elderly individuals with depression, US study findings suggest.

The results also imply that "neurogenesis may be necessary for the expression of antidepressant action," Helen Lavretsky, from the University of California at Los Angeles, and colleagues report in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Noting that the neuroprotective properties of antidepressant treatment have previously been suggested in both animal and human studies, the researchers explored the effect of antidepressant exposure on regional gray matter volumes in the frontal and orbitofrontal regions of the brain in 41 depressed elderly patients.

The participants, who had an average age of 70.5 years, underwent comprehensive neuropsychiatric and physical examinations. Measures of their total and frontal lobe and frontal gray and white matter volumes were obtained using magnetic resonance imaging.

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