Effects of modified electroconvulsive therapy on hippocampal morphology and inferior ventricular vein in patients with major depressive disorder / 中华神经医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the changes in hippocampal morphology and inferior ventricular vein in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) before and after modified electroconvulsive therapy (MECT) using morphological measurement and susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI).Methods Recruited for this study were 64 MDD patients who had been admitted to the Affiliated Guangji Hospital to Soochow University from February 2016 through March 2017.They were assigned into 2 equal groups.One group was subjected to MECT and the other to simple drug treatment.All the patients were scanned with T1-MR and SWI one day before and after treatment to observe the changes in hippocampal morphology and inferior ventricular vein.The associations between relative parameters and Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) were analyzed.The 2 groups were compared in terms of therapeutic efficacy.Results The volumes of the whole hippocampus and the hippocampal body were increased significantly after MECT (P＜0.05) while there were no significant differences in the hippocampal head or tail (P＞0.05).Significant increases in the branch number,diameter and length of the inferior ventricular vein were found after MECT (P＜0.05).The left and right hippocampal volumes were negatively associated with the HAMD scores (r=-0.442,P=0.011;r=-0.470,P=0.007).Negative correlations were also found between the branch number,diameter and length of the inferior ventricular vein and the HAMD scores (r=-0.419,P=0.017;r=-0.477,P=0.006;r=-0.398,P=0.024).The curative efficacy of the MECT group was significantly higher than that of the drug treatment group (91％ versus 72％) (P＜0.05).Conclusion Changes in the hippocampal morphology and inferior ventricular vein can be used as one of the objective indicators to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of MECT in MDD patients.