Brain Imaging May Be Able to Predict the Efficacy of CBT on Depressed Patients

The results of fMRI scans of the brain may be able to indicate which depressed patients will benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and which will not according to an article published in the April 2006 issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry.

The study had 14 unmedicated depressed patients and 21 non-depressed "control" patients undergo fMRI scans while being presented with emotional words and asked if those words applied to them.  All depressed patients went through 16 sessions of CBT over 12 weeks.  Better recovery for the depressed was associated with decreased activity in the subgenual cingulate cortex and increased activity in the amygdala while reading negative words.

Of course, 14 depressed patients is hardly a comprehensive study and it is much more logical financially to undergo a few sessions of CBT and decide if it works than getting an fMRI to tell you if CBT will work.

But those who are depressed know that the amount of medication and therapy choices are daunting when you're trying to get control over your symptoms.  It is also incredibly frustrating to have a medication or therapy fail and have to start a new course of treatment so I think that studies like this are a step in the right direction and will hopefully make treating depression more straightforward in the future.

 

Article at ScienceDaily

Article at Medical News Today