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Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers have found brain changes in preschool-age children with depression that are not apparent in their nondepressed peers.
The study, in the July issue of The Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, examined 23 children 4 to 6 years old who had been diagnosed with depression and 31 of their healthy peers. Researchers used well-validated tests to diagnose depression, and eliminated from the study children with neurological disorders, autism or developmental disorders, or who had been born prematurely. None of the subjects was taking antidepressants.
The children underwent M.R.I. brain scans while viewing pictures of happy, sad, fearful or neutral faces. The researchers found that right amygdala and right thalamus activity was significantly greater in the depressed children than in the others, a finding that has also been observed in depressed adolescents and adults.
“We found something in the brain that is aligned with the idea of neurobiological models of depression — which parts of the brain are involved and how they interact,” said the lead author, Michael S. Gaffrey, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis. “We can begin to use this information in conjunction with other information — symptoms, other biological markers — to identify and eventually prevent and treat this disorder.”