Karavasilis E, et al. – The pattern of gray matter (GM) abnormalities that differentiate depressive from non–depressive Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients were examined. This large–sample study gave the first clear explanation of a unique pattern of GM atrophy that characterized AD patients with depression which was consistent with regions implicated in the phenomenon of psychomotor retardation that characterizes depression.

• A total of 201 AD patients who underwent MRI assessment were included.
• The authors categorized them into depressive and non-depressive subgroups based on the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS; cut-off score: ≤9).
• Whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analysis was performed in 173 patients after MRI quality control and used between-group comparisons and regression analysis models to analyze the volumetric data controlling for nuisance variables.

• Compared to non-depressive patients, depressive AD patients had extensive GM volume loss mainly in the paracentral region, particularly in post- and pre-central gyrus, supplementary motor areas and thalamus.
• The authors obtained similar findings for the group of 173 patients using regression analysis and GDS score as predictor variable.