Objective: Depression is the most frequent neuropsychiatric manifestation in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Although evidence suggests that depression in PD is related to the degenerative process that underlies the disease, a complete understanding of neural substrates has yet to be achieved.

Background: To investigate the neuroanatomical changes underlying depression in PD, we conducted a voxel based morphometry (VBM) study in de novo, drug-naïve Parkinson’s disease patients with and without depression.

Methods: We studied thirty-one patients with idiopathic, de novo, drug-naïve PD. Patient clinical characteristics, including age, sex, disease duration, Hohen and Yahr stage, and brief neuropsychological testing were assessed. Sixteen Parkinson’s disease patients with depression (PD-D) were defined as patients with abnormal geriatric depressions scales (> 17 points), and fifteen patients had Parkinson’s disease without depression (PD-ND). VBM analysis of gray matter (GM) volume was performed to determine the difference between the PD-D and PD-ND groups.

Results: There were no differences in terms of clinical characteristics between the PD-D and PD-ND groups, but the level of education in the PD-ND was higher than that in the PD-D. The GM volume loss was significantly decreased in the left anterior cingulate and left precentral gyrus in the PD-D group compared to the PD-ND group.

Conclusions: Depression in Parkinson’s disease is associated with the left anterior cingulate and left precentral gyrus region.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/neuroanatomical-correlates-of-depressive-symptoms-in-newly-diagnosed-parkinsons-disease-patients/