Separating depression in the elderly

In the brains of elderly people suffering from depression, a distinction can be made between those with chronic depression and individuals suffering from depression that began more recently.

This has emerged from research conducted by Joost Janssen for his doctoral dissertation, in which he used an MRI scanner to study patients. Chronically depressed elderly people more often have a smaller hippocampus and those with a more recent depression are more likely to have abnormalities in the brain’s white matter. This means that the term “late-life depression” actually consists of two distinct kinds of depression. He also found that in general, elderly people suffering from depression have a smaller hippocampus than healthy people of the same age.

Janssen received his PhD from Utrecht University on September 5. His thesis is called 'Late-life Depression: Structural Brain Abnormalities, Treatment and Risk Factors'.