Objective: We sought to determine whether the aspects of white matter connectivity implicated in major depression also relate to mild depressive symptoms in family dementia caregivers (dCGs).
Methods: Forty-one dCGs (average age=69 years, standard deviation=6.4) underwent a 7 Tesla 64-direction (12-minute) diffusion-weighted imaging sequence. We compared the fractional anisotropy (FA) of 11 white matter features between dCGs with (n=20) and without (n=21) depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scores ≥5).
Results: Caregivers reporting depression symptoms had lower FA in tracts connecting to the posterior cingulate cortex (Cohen's d = -0.9) and connecting dorsolateral prefrontal with rostral cingulate regions (Cohen's d = -1.2).
Conclusions: Posterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal-to-rostral cingulate white matter, implicated in prior studies of major depression, appear relevant to mild depression in dCGs.
Keywords: Dementia caregiving; depression; diffusion tensor imaging; white matter.
Copyright © 2019 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.