Depression in neurological diseases: A review

This review deals with the neurobiology of depression, particularly in Alzh eimer's disease, vascular dementia, Parkinson disease, during post-stroke s ituations, and finally, very briefly with depression in epileptic patients. The available epidemiological data on incidence and/or prevalence for each disease will be discussed, and when these data appear conflicting, the pos sible causes of the discrepancies will be analyzed. The specific associatio n between each single pathological picture and the subtype of affective dis orders will be reviewed. Furthermore the time course of depressive symptoms during the evolution of the diseases will be discussed. At last, insight w ill be provided on the possible anatomical and neurochemical causes underly ing depression in each single disease.