Does Depression Shrink Adolescent Brains?

Teenagers with depression had smaller right hippocampal volumes and shorter telomeres, which might be harbingers of later memory impairment and premature death.

In adults, major depressive disorder (MDD) can include cognitive impairments such as memory loss and premature onset of diseases of aging, which have been associated with lower hippocampal volume (HV) and shorter telomeres, respectively. Only some studies of adults with MDD, however, have found smaller HV and shorter telomere length (TL). Reasoning that data in adults might be confounded by medications or recurrent MDD episodes, these investigators studied 54 medication-naive adolescents with first-episode MDD who had been comprehensively assessed.

The patients had smaller right HV on magnetic resonance imaging and shorter TL than 63 matched healthy controls. Neither MDD severity nor self-reported childhood trauma was significantly related t…

Reviewing Author

Barbara Geller, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Barbara Geller, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Does Depression Shrink Adolescent Brains?

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Reviewing Author