White matter abnormalities in major depression.

• Main Author: Tham, Leonard Ming Wei.
• Other Authors: School of Biological Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Human anatomy and physiology::Neurobiology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/38608
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Of late, there is more focus on understanding the white matter changes in psychiatric disorders including Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Such studies can investigate white matter pathology along several fronts, namely understanding the brain white matter volume changes, connectivity disruptions, as well as genetic factors underpinning MDD. In this review paper, we aimed to review and summarize our state of the art understanding of the existing literature documenting neuropathology, neuroimaging and neurogenetic studies involving white matter in MDD. Overall, data is sparse and mostly conducted in older patients with MDD but we found that white matter lesions are focused in the frontal regions of the brain and which are associated with clinical severity and treatment responsiveness. There was a lack of data with regard to genetic studies, younger depressed subjects and white matter pathology in non frontal brain regions. These limitations offer opportunities for future and better research designs to understand the neural basis underling MDD.