Frequent depression leads to a decrease in the size of the hippocampus. However, most likely, damage to this area of the brain is reversible, the researchers say.
The hippocampus is an area of the brain that is responsible for long-term memory, the formation of new memories and the connection of emotions with them. 15 research institutes in several countries around the world conducted a collaborative study to compare the hippocampus of healthy people and people with depression.1 This made it possible to study the brain scans of 8927 study participants, 1728 of whom were experiencing depression at the time. 65% of participants in the depressed group had multiple episodes of depression. It has been shown that patients with recurrent and untreated depression, as well as those who fell ill before the age of 21, have pronounced damage to the hippocampus. This result speaks to the importance of timely treatment of depression, especially in adolescents and young adults, the authors of the study believe.
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In Australia, the project was led by a professor at the University of Sydney, a member of the state commission on mental health, Ian Hickie.2 In those who have encountered depression for the first time, the hippocampus remains of a normal size, so it is especially important to identify and treat depression as soon as possible in order to prevent changes, the psychiatrist said. “But the more depression a person has experienced, the more their hippocampus shrinks.”
Although the hippocampus plays an important role in the formation and storage of new memories, Ian Hickey explains that memory in this case is not only remembering passwords or solving crossword puzzles: “Our sense of self depends on how we are able to continuously recognize our place in the world. The state of memory is not only remembering, but also our idea of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbself. In many animal experiments, it has previously been shown that a decrease in the hippocampus leads not only to changes in memory, but also to changes in behavior; in other words, damage to the hippocampus means the loss of some functions.
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“We are seeing evidence that, with the right treatment, recovery is possible,” the psychiatrist continues. – In the hippocampus, connections between cells destroyed by depression quickly regenerate. At the same time, effective treatment involves not only drugs. If you don’t have a job, for example, and you sit in a room doing nothing, this can affect the shrinking of the hippocampus.” So interaction with society is absolutely necessary. “Furthermore, the evidence suggests that patients who take antidepressants keep their hippocampus intact, suggesting that these drugs may have a protective effect,” says Hickey. But that doesn’t mean they should be the only cure. In fact, there are a number of possible non-pharmacological treatments that should not be forgotten, especially when it comes to young people.”
1 The results of the study are published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry at nature.com.
2 Author of Depression out of the shadows: a guide to understanding depression and its treatment, Yale University Press, 2003.