Droppa K, et al. – The researchers motive behind this study was to characterize changes in depression severity, cognitive function, and brain structure associated with pharmacologic antidepressant treatment for late–life depression (LLD). They discovered no relationships between changes in cognitive performance and improvements in either depressive symptoms or changes in gray matter volume (GMV).

Methods

• In the present study, the researchers administered a detailed neurocognitive battery and conducted structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on twenty six people with LLD, pre-/post-a 12-week treatment trial with venlafaxine.
• After calculating changes in cognitive performance, GMV, and depression severity, they calculated Pearson's correlations, performed permutation testing, and false discovery rate correction. 

Results

• The results of this study showed that loss of GMV over 12 weeks in the superior orbital frontal gyrus was related to less improvement in depression severity and that increased GMV in the same was correlated with greater improvement in depression severity.