EFFECT OF SERTRALINE ON REGIONAL METABOLIC-RATE IN PATIENTS WITH AFFECTIVE-DISORDER

Seventeen patients with major affective disorder completed a 10-week, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of the serotonin reuptake inhibit or sertraline. Patients underwent positron emission tomography with F- 18-deoxyglucose and were assessed with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale at baseline and 10 weeks after treatment with sertraline or plac ebo. The middle frontal gyrus, an area previously characterized by dec reased metabolic activity in depressive patients, showed relatively in creased activity an both sides after sertraline when contrasted with t emporal and same occipital areas. Setraline was associated with a sign ificantly increased relative metabolic rate in right parietal lobe and in left occipital area 19, and a decreased metabolic rate in right oc cipital area 18, Other areas that differed between controls and a larg er cohort of 39 depressive patients-including medial frontal lobe, cin gulate gyrus, and thalamus-also showed a normalization of metabolic ra te after sertraline. (C) 1997 Society of Biological Psychiatry.