• Biological psychiatry · Mar 2006

    Evidence for impaired cortical inhibition in patients with unipolar major depression.

    • Malek Bajbouj, Sarah H Lisanby, Undine E Lang, Heidi Danker-Hopfe, Isabella Heuser, and Peter Neu.
    • Department of Psychiatry, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany. malek.bajbouj@charite.de
    • Biol. Psychiatry. 2006 Mar 1;59(5):395-400.

    BackgroundSeveral lines of evidence suggest that central cortical inhibitory mechanisms, especially associated with gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurotransmission, may play a role in the pathophysiology of major depression. Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a useful tool for investigating central cortical inhibitory mechanisms associated with GABAergic neurotransmission in psychiatric and neurological disorders.MethodsBy means of transcranial magnetic stimulation, different parameters of cortical excitability, including motor threshold, the cortical silent period, and intracortical inhibition/facilitation, were investigated in 20 medication-free depressed patients and 20 age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers.ResultsSilent period and intracortical inhibition were reduced in depressed patients, consistent with a reduced GABAergic tone. Moreover, patients showed a significant hemispheric asymmetry in motor threshold.ConclusionsThis study provides evidence of reduced GABAergic tone and motor threshold asymmetry in patients with major depression.

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