Ventricular volume, white matter alterations and outcome of major depression and their relationship to endocrine parameters - A pilot study

Objectives: Brain morphology and its relation to endocrine parameters were examined, in order to determine the link of these parameters to treatment outcome to psychopharmacological treatment in depressed patients. Methods: We examined the potentially predictive value of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) parameters related to mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) function on the treatment outcome of depression. 16 inpatients with a major depressive episode (MDE) were studied at baseline and 14 of them approximately six weeks later. Physiological biomarkers and 3-T-structural MRI based volume measures, using FreeSurfer 6.0 software, were determined. Results: Non-responders (n = 6) had a significantly smaller volume of the right anterior cingulate cortex, a significantly larger ventricle to brain ratio (VBR) and third ventricle volume, and smaller volumes of the central and central-anterior corpus callosum (CC) in comparison to responders (n = 7; all p <= 0.05). Correlational analysis (Spearman) demonstrated that larger ventricle volume was correlated to a worse treatment outcome, higher body mass index (BMI) and smaller CC segment volume, whereas the total CC volume was negatively correlated to the saliva aldosterone/cortisol concentration ratio (AC-ratio). Conclusion: Large ventricular volume may be a predictive marker for worse treatment response to standard antidepressant treatment, potentially via compression of white matter structures. A mediating role of the previously identified markers BMI and the AC-ratio, is suggested.

Automated summary

Brain morphology and endocrine parameters were found to be associated with treatment outcome in depressed patients. Non-responders tended to have larger ventricular volume and smaller central white matter structures.