A. Kumar et al., REGIONAL CEREBRAL GLUCOSE-METABOLISM IN LATE-LIFE DEPRESSION AND ALZHEIMER-DISEASE - A PRELIMINARY POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY STUDY, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Statesof America, 90(15), 1993, pp. 7019-7023
Eight subjects with late-life depression, eight subjects with probable
Alzheimer disease, and eight healthy age-matched controls were studie
d using 2-F-18!fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography
in the resting state with their eyes open and ears unoccluded. The dep
ressed subjects showed widespread reductions in the regional cerebral
metabolic rate for glucose in most major neocortical, subcortical, and
paralimbic regions that were significantly different from control val
ues (P < 0.01). The metabolic decrements in the depressed group were c
omparable in magnitude to those seen in the Alzheimer disease group. T
hese data demonstrate widespread nonfocal decline in glucose metabolis
m in late-life depression that is comparable to the hypometabolism see
n in Alzheimer disease. These findings have pathophysiological implica
tions in major depressive disorder in the elderly.