Treatment of depression can change the structure of the adult brain, which was thought to be fixed

Inpatient treatment of depression can lead to increased brain connectivity, research proves This could tackle symptoms of depression and give hope to patients who believe depression is forever Scientists have long believed that the structure of the The adult brain is generally rigid and incapable of rapid change, but now new work has proven this is not true by showing that inpatient treatment of depression can lead to increased brain connectivity, and that patients who respond well to this treatment show a greater increase in connectivity than those who do not. The study was presented at the 35th annual conference of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, held in Vienna by its principal investigator, Professor Jonathan Repple, from the University of Frankfurt, Germany. Dr. Eric Ruhe, from the University Medical Center of Rabdoud, in Nijmegen (The Netherlands), highlights that “this means that the structure of the brain of patients suffering from mental illnesses is stronger than that of those who do not suffer from them. This means that the brain structure of patients with severe clinical depression is not as fixed as we thought, and that we can improve the brain structure in a short period of time, about 6 weeks.” He adds: “We have verified that if this treatment produces a increased brain connectivity, it is also effective in tackling the symptoms of depression. This gives hope to patients who believe that nothing can change and that they have to live with a disease forever, because it is ‘burnt into their brain’. studied 109 patients with severe depression (major depressive disorder) and compared them to 55 healthy controls.Their brains were scanned with a prepared MRI scanner to identify which parts of the brain were communicating with others, determining the level of connections within the brain .The patients then received treatment for depression, some with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), others with psychological therapy or medication, and others with a combination of all therapies.After treatment, they were re-scanned and counted the number of They were also retested for symptoms of depression.Professor Repple, now Professor of Psych Predictive iatry at the University of Frankfurt, notes that they found that treating depression changed the infrastructure of the brain, which goes against previous expectations. “Treated patients showed a greater number of connections than before treatment. In addition, those who showed a greater response to treatment had developed a greater number of new connections than those who showed little response. A second scan showing no temporary effects in healthy controls supports our findings that we see something that is related to the disease and, more importantly, to the treatment of this disease.” they occurred in a period of only about 6 weeks.” We were surprised by the speed of the response. We do not have an explanation of how these changes occur, or why they occur with such different forms of treatment.” Dr. Ruhe, who was not involved in the study, stresses in a separate comment that “this is a very interesting and challenging study in which the authors repeated MRI scans to reveal changes in structural connectivity over time in patients treated for depression.” “The results largely agree with our current belief that that the brain has much more flexibility to adapt over time (even in the short term) than previously thought. Indeed, an important insight into what the treatment of depression (and other psychiatric illnesses) invokes is plastic changes over time. This has been proposed as a common mechanism for antidepressants, psychotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy.” However, he regrets that the amount of research to elucidate what changes are necessary or specific for treatment response or remission of depression is limited. “In addition, the next question is whether the different treatments have the potential to specifically change target brain networks or, conversely, whether we can use the brain network alterations measured in the present study to choose which therapy will be helpful,” concludes.