A Novel Target to Improve Outcomes in Late-Life Depression?
-
A new study sheds light on the neurologic underpinnings of late-life depression (LLD) with apathy and its frequently poor response to treatment. Investigators headed by Faith Gunning, PhD, of the Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, analyzed baseline and posttreatment brain MRIs and functional MRIs (fMRIs) of older adults with depression who participated in a 12-week open-label nonrandomized clinical trial of escitalopram. Participants had undergone clinical and cognitive assessments.
-
@naresh Disturbances were found in resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) between the salience network (SN) and other large-scale networks that support goal-directed behavior, especially in patients with depression who also had features of apathy. Even after participants had completed escitalopram treatment, apathy-related variability in functional connectivity was associated with poor antidepressant response and persistent cognitive dysfunction.