A SPECT HMPAO study of regional cerebral blood flow in depressed adolescents and normal controls

1. The objective of this study was to compare the relative regional cerebra l blood flow (rCBF) patterns of a group of adolescents with major depressiv e disorder (MDD) to a group of normal controls. 2. Seven adolescent patients with symptomatic MDD and 7 age- and gender-mat ched normal controls, underwent SPECT imaging with Tc-99m-HMPAO while unmed icated and in a resting state. These subject's data were normalized to whol e brain counts, oriented in Talairach space, and analyzed using a voxel-bas ed, t-image approach. 3. The authors found relative rCBF increases in the depressed group as comp ared to normals in the right mesial temporal cortex, the right superior-ant erior temporal lobe, and the left infero-lateral temporal lobe. We found rC BF decreases in the depressed group as compared to normals in the left pari etal lobe, the anterior thalamus and the right caudate. 4. Adolescents with MDD show rCBF abnormalities similar to those found in a dult MDD rCBF studies. Further controlled studies with larger numbers of MD D subjects and normal age- and gender-matched controls are necessary before any definitive conclusions can be made from these findings.