• Linda Isaac, Keith L Main, Salil Soman, Ian H Gotlib, Ansgar J Furst, Lisa M Kinoshita, J Kaci Fairchild, Jerome A Yesavage, J Wesson Ashford, Peter J Bayley, and Maheen M Adamson.
• War Related Illness and Injury Study Center, The Veterans Affairs Palo Alto HealthCare System, Palo Alto, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA. Electronic address: lisaac@stanford.edu.
• Biol Psychol. 2015 Feb 1; 105: 20-8.

AbstractA significant proportion of military personnel deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom were exposed to war-zone events associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI), depression (DEP) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The co-occurrence of TBI, PTSD and DEP in returning Veterans has recently increased research and clinical interest. This study tested the hypothesis that white matter abnormalities are further impacted by depression. Of particular relevance is the uncinate fasciculus (UF), which is a key fronto-temporal tract involved in mood regulation, and the cingulum; a tract that connects to the hippocampus involved in memory integration. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was performed on 25 patients with a combination of PTSD, TBI and DEP and 20 patients with PTSD and TBI (no DEP). Microstructural changes of white matter were found in the cingulum and UF. Fractional anisotropy (FA) was lower in Veterans with DEP compared to those without DEP. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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