Pituitary gland volume in currently depressed and remitted depressed patients

Valentina Lorenzetti; Nicholas B Allen; Alex Fornito; Christos Pantelis; Giovanni De Plato; Anthony Ang; Murat Yuecel

Journal article

Pituitary gland volume in currently depressed and remitted depressed patients

Valentina Lorenzetti, Nicholas B Allen, Alex Fornito, Christos Pantelis, Giovanni De Plato, Anthony Ang, Murat Yuecel

PSYCHIATRY RESEARCH-NEUROIMAGING | ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD | Published : 2009

DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2008.06.006

Abstract

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been associated with increased pituitary gland volume (PGV), which is thought to reflect stress-related dysregulation related to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity. However, it is unclear whether PGV alteration reflects a "dynamic" change related to current mood instability or if it is a stable marker of illness vulnerability. In this study we investigated PGV in currently depressed patients (cMDD) (n=31), remitted depressed patients (rMDD) (n=31) and healthy controls (n=33), using 1.5 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The groups were matched for age and gender. We found no significant PGV, intra-cranial volume (ICV) or whole brain vo..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Christos Pantelis Author Psychiatry

Nick Allen Author Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Clinical Career Development Award

Awarded by NHMRC Program Grant

Funding Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants from the Australian Research Council (I.D. DP0557663). Dr Yucel was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Clinical Career Development Award (509345), a NHMRC Program Grant (I.D. 350241) and the Colonial Foundation. Dr Fornito is supported by a J.N. Peters Fellowship. Neuroimaging analysis was facilitated by the Neuropsychiatry Imaging Laboratory managed by Ms Bridget Soulsby at the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre and supported by Neurosciences Victoria. Participant recruitment and assessment have been done by Ms Orli Schwartz and Ms Diana Maud. Valentina Lorenzetti is supported by an overseas research project scholarship of the Department of Psychology, University of Bologna.