There's growing evidence that several parts of the brain shrink in people with depression. Specifically, these areas lose gray matter volume (GMV). That's tissue with a lot of brain cells. GMV loss seems to be higher in people who have regular or ongoing depression with serious symptoms.
Numerous studies that focused on gray and white matter have found significant brain region alterations in major depressive disorder patients, such as in the frontal lobe, hippocampus, temporal lobe, thalamus, striatum, and amygdala.
In addition, recent data have shown that depression is a risk factor for the development of several neurologic disorders, including epilepsy, stroke, and Parkinson's disease and bears a negative impact on the course and outcome of most neurologic disorders.
Diagnosing Depression
Because several medical conditions mimic depression symptoms, neurologists can help confirm a diagnosis of depression. Symptoms that look similar to depression are common among adults who have substance abuse issues, medication side effects, medical problems, or other mental health conditions.
Duration of the depressive episodes is highly variable and, although most people recover in one or two years, approximately 15% present a chronic course. This chronic course is related to other mental disorders such as personality disorders, anxiety disorders or substance use.
Your brain does eventually heal itself. This neuroplasticity or “brain plasticity” is the more recent discovery that gray matter can actually shrink or thicken; neural connections can be forged and refined or weakened and severed. Changes in the physical brain manifest as changes in our abilities.
“This means that the brain structure of patients with serious clinical depression is not as fixed as we thought, and we can improve brain structure within a short time frame, around 6 weeks,” said Eric Ruhe, from Rabdoud Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands .
When you suffer from depression, your brain is physically changed. Research by the National Institutes of Health shows that you lose gray matter volume (GMV) when you suffer from depression. This loss is caused by parts of your brain shrinking due to the hormone cortisol impeding the growth of your brain cells.
According to the Mayo Clinic, patients with untreated long-term depression are more prone to sleep disruptions, heart disease, weight gain or loss, weakened immune systems, and physical pain.
Untreated clinical depression is a serious problem. Untreated depression increases the chance of risky behaviors such as drug or alcohol addiction. It also can ruin relationships, cause problems at work, and make it difficult to overcome serious illnesses.
A PET scan can compare brain activity during periods of depression (left) with normal brain activity (right). An increase of blue and green colors, along with decreased white and yellow areas, shows decreased brain activity due to depression.
A depression not only makes a person feel sad and dejected – it can also damage the brain permanently, so the person has difficulties remembering and concentrating once the disease is over. Up to 20 percent of depression patients never make a full recovery.
Brain Inflammation
Studies show these proteins are even higher in people who've had untreated major depressive disorder for 10 years or longer. Uncontrolled brain inflammation can: Hurt or kill brain cells. Prevent new brain cells from growing.
Depression may cause the release of glucocorticoid in the brain, a type of steroid that can damage the hippocampus and other areas of the central nervous system. When this occurs, you may experience symptoms associated with neurocognitive disorder (dementia), such as memory loss.
This can be caused by overworking, lack of sleep, stress, and spending too much time on the computer. On a cellular level, brain fog is believed to be caused by high levels inflammation and changes to hormones that determine your mood, energy and focus.
Chronic depression is the persistence of depressive symptoms for an extended period (usually years). If you are chronically depressed, you have likely lost interest in the things you used to love. In addition, you may experience the following: Poor appetite or overeating.
Persistent depressive disorder (PDD) is a mild to moderate chronic depression. It involves a sad or dark mood most of the day, on most days, for two years or more. PDD is common and can happen to anyone at any age. The most effective treatment combines medication, counseling and healthy lifestyle choices.
In general, nearly everyone with depression has ongoing feelings of sadness, and may feel helpless, hopeless, and irritable. Without treatment, symptoms can last for many years. This condition is most often treated with medicine, therapy, or a combination of both.
Despite promising small-scale research, it turns out that it is not possible to diagnose depression on the basis of an MRI scan.
Functional MRI studies on patients with major depression demonstrated abnormal excitations and inhibitions in the prefrontal cortex also known as the connectome - the network of neural connections within the brain. This part of the brain governs cognitive ability and emotions.
To diagnose depression, a doctor performs a physical exam, asks about your symptoms, and recommends a blood test to determine if another condition, such as hypothyroidism, is causing your symptoms. If the doctor does not find an underlying cause of your symptoms, he or she performs a psychological evaluation.