Frontal Cerebral Perfusion After Antidepressant Drug Treatment Versus ECT in Elderly Patients With Major Depression: A 12-Month Follow-Up Control Study

Background: Little is known about the evolution of brain perfusion alterations in patients with major depression, and still less about the changes in functional neuroimage produced by different antidepressant biological treatments.

Method: Between January 2001 and December 2003, long-term follow-up frontal brain perfusion was compared in 2 subgroups of elderly patients (>= 60 years) treated for severe unipolar major depression (DSM-IV): one subgroup of 16 patients administered electroconvulsive therapy, and another of 26 patients receiving pharmacologic treatment. All patients were remitters. A medication-free brain single photon emission computed tomography was performed in baseline conditions and after a minimum period of 12 months of euthymia. Twenty-eight age- and sex-matched healthy controls were also assessed.

Results: No significant differences were found between the 2 subgroups in frontal uptake ratios after a 12-month follow-up period of euthymia. During the acute episode, patients presented significant anterior hypofrontality; 12 months later the hypofrontality had disappeared.

Conclusion: The long-term evolution of frontal perfusion in elderly major depressives who respond to antidepressant biological treatment is essentially the same in those who receive electroconvulsive therapy and in those who receive medication.