A recent study led by researchers at Stony Brook University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health has used a specialized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique to investigate the connection between chronic depression and dopamine levels in the brain. The findings, published in JAMA Network, may help explain why some individuals experience long-term depression while others have shorter episodes.
The research team employed neuromelanin-sensitive MRI to measure neuromelanin signals in the midbrain of 105 women with an average age of 21.6 years. Neuromelanin accumulates gradually in areas where dopamine is produced, making it possible to estimate lifetime dopamine production using this imaging method.
“We used MRI to measure lifetime accumulation of neuromelanin,” said Greg Perlman, lead author and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. “We discovered that low neuromelanin MRI signal is related to chronic depression and less extraversion.”
Extraversion is described as a personality trait characterized by enthusiasm, positive emotions, and sociability.
Perlman further noted that “young women with briefer and less chronic depression had normal levels of neuromelanin MRI signal.”
Participants were assessed for depressive disorders using interviews based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV), starting from ages 13-15 up until their MRI scans at ages 20-24. The duration of depressive episodes was used to categorize participants into groups: chronic depression, nonchronic depression, or no history of depression.
According to data from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), about 21 million Americans experience at least one major depressive episode each year. Young adults aged 18-25 have the highest prevalence at nearly 19 percent, with rates higher among women than men. More information on these statistics can be found at https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression.
Perlman and his co-authors wrote, “the role of midbrain dopamine function in depression in general, and in chronic depression in particular, is poorly understood. Yet it is critically important to understand, given the magnitude of chronic depression’s public health burden and the need for novel therapeutic strategies.”
The research team plans to continue exploring the relationship between depression and dopamine function in both young adults and teenagers. Perlman indicated that this work could eventually lead to improved diagnosis and treatment options for different subgroups of depression.
Collaborators on the project included scientists from the Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Columbia University. The study received partial funding from the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
