Abstract #0506

Structural brain changes after Electroconvulsive therapy are broadly distributed.

Leif Oltedal^1,2, Ute Kessler³, Donald Hagler¹, Vera Jane Erchinger², Dominic Holland¹, Ketil J Oedegaard², and Anders M Dale^1,4

¹Center for Multimodal Imaging and Genetics, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States, ²Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, ³Division of Psychiatry, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway, ⁴Department of Radiology, University of California San Diego, CA, United States

Major depression is the leading cause of disability in the world. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) which is used in major depression when other treatments are ineffective, has been shown to cause increased volume of multiple specific subcortical and cortical regions. A sample of 19 patients with T1-weighted 3D volumes acquired before and after ECT was analyzed by using nonlinear registration and unbiased methods for quantification of regional anatomical change (Quarc). The effect sizes of ECT-induced brain changes are large, and the changes are more broadly distributed than previously thought. The results suggest a global effect, probably modulated by the stimulation parameters.

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