The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
-
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · May 2015
White matter integrity and depressive symptoms in cerebral small vessel disease: The RUN DMC study.
Depressive symptoms are common in elderly with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). As not every individual with SVD experiences depressive symptoms, other factors might play a role. We therefore investigated the white matter (WM) integrity of the white matter tracts in elderly with depressive symptoms, independent of global cognitive function, by applying the tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). ⋯ This study indicates that elderly with depressive symptoms show a lower WM integrity, independent of global cognitive function, and that the presence of SVD is mostly responsible, affecting the fronto-subcortical regions and hereby disrupting the neural circuitry involved in mood regulation.