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Chronic Depression Causes Brain Damage

By Sharon Smith
Monday, 20 July, 2015


A study published in has shown that persistent depression causes brain damage by shrinking the hippocampus, leading to a loss of emotional and behavioural function.
Researchers 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 USA and Australia.
The study, which examined people who have experienced depression before the age of 21 and separate groups experiencing singular and recurring depressive episodes, found that depression leads to brain shrinkage in the limbic system, containing the hippocampus and amygdala.
"This study confirms - in a very large sample - a finding that鈥檚 been reported on quite a few occasions," says on The Conversation. He is a psychiatrist at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia, who wasn鈥檛 involved in the research. "It鈥檚 interesting that none of the other subcortical areas of the brain have come up as consistently, so it also confirms that the hippocampus is particularly vulnerable to depression."
Professor Ian Hickie, who co-authored the paper said that these findings confirmed what has been suspected for a long time: that depression does alter the brain. He said this study revealed the harm that persistent or chronic depression does.
鈥淭hose who have only ever had one episode do not have a smaller hippocampus, so it鈥檚 not a predisposing factor but a consequence of the illness state.鈥
鈥淚t puts the emphasis then on early identification of the more severe persistent or recurrent cases. Importantly, in early identification systems you have to stick with those in who it persists or is recurrent, because they鈥檙e the ones who will be most harmed from a brain point of view.鈥
However Professor Hickie also pointed out research that indicated the healing effects of the brain, and particularly the hippocampus. This gives hope that the long-term effects of depression are in fact reversible.
鈥淭he hippocampus is one of the most important regenerative areas of the brain,鈥 he says

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