Friday, March 27th, 2009

Thinning Brain May Point to Depression

A person at high risk for depression has lost brain tissue in the right lateral cortex (color-coded with purple and blue), compared to the left lateral region which shows no loss of brain matter. Image provided by Columbia University Medical Center © 2009.

Brain-imaging studies indicate that a thinning of the right hemisphere of the brain may be linked to an increased risk of depression. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report that people at high risk of developing depression had a 28 percent thinning of the right cortex, the brain’s outermost surface, compared to people with no known risk of depression. The thinning was not linked to actual depression -- just an increased risk of developing depression. Researchers said that the discovery that there was a structural link in the cortex to depression was surprising, and plan more imaging and genetic studies to expand on the finding. We'll find out more.