Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6236670 | Journal of Affective Disorders | 2009 | 6 Pages |
BackgroundMajor depression (MDD) is characterized by altered emotion processing and deficits in cognitive control. In cognitive interference tasks, patients with MDD have shown excessive amygdala activity and under-recruitment of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of antidepressant treatment on anomalous neural activity in cognitive-control and emotion-processing circuitry.MethodsFunctional magnetic resonance imaging was conducted on depressed patients (n = 23) (both before and after antidepressant treatment) compared with matched controls (n = 18) while they performed a cognitive task involving attended and unattended fear-related stimuli.ResultsAfter eight weeks of SSRI antidepressant treatment, patients with depression showed significantly increased DLPFC activity to unattended fear-related stimuli and no longer differed from controls in either DLPFC or amygdala activity.ConclusionsThese results suggest that antidepressant treatment increases DLPFC under-activity during cognitive tasks that include emotional interference.LimitationsThe sample was fairly homogeneous and this may limit generalizability.