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Brain mechanisms associated with depressive relapse and associated cognitive impairment following acute tryptophan depletion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Katharine A. Smith ,
John S. Morris ,
Karl J. Fristdn ,
Philip J. Cowen  and
Raymond J. Dolan
Katharine A. Smith
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
John S. Morris
Affiliation:
Wellcome Department; of Cognitive Neurology, London
Karl J. Fristdn
Affiliation:
Wellcome Department; of Cognitive Neurology, London
Philip J. Cowen
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, VVarneford Hospital, Oxford
Raymond J. Dolan*
Affiliation:
Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, London
*
Professor R. J. Dolan, Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, Queen Square, London WCIN 3BG
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Abstract

Background

Acute tryptophan depletion lowers brain serotonin synthesis and results in a transient, but striking, clinical relapse in recovered depressed patients.

Aims

To identify brain regions which change their activity as an acute depressive relapse evolves and to determine how pathological mood might modulate neural activity during a cognitive task.

Method

We used H215O positron-emission tomography (PET) to study eight recovered depressed men after tryptophan depletion and after a control procedure. During both PET scan sessions, subjects performed a paced verbal fluency task which alternated with a control verbal repetition task.

Results

Increasing levels of depression after tryptophan depletion were associated with diminished neural activity in the ventral anterior cingulate, orbitofrontal cortex and caudate nucleus regions. In addition, depressive relapse attenuated cognitive task-related activation in the anterior cingulate cortex.

Conclusions

Our data indicate that changes in neural activity in distinct brain regions mediate the clinical phenomena of depression and depression-related cognitive impairment following acute tryptophan depletion. These changes could be associated with the widespread distribution of serotonin neurons in brain pathways associated with the expression of affect and cognitive performance.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 174 , Issue 6 , June 1999 , pp. 525 - 529
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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Footnotes

Declaration of interest

This study was supported by the Wellcome Trust.

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