This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (137)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Aging/ Geriatrics  • Neurology  • Depression  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Jan Cees de Groot, MD, PhD; Frank-Erik de Leeuw, MD, PhD; Matthijs Oudkerk, MD, PhD; Albert Hofman, MD, PhD; Jellemer Jolles, PhD; Monique M. B. Breteler, MD, PhD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2000;57:1071-1076.

Background  There is evidence for a vascular cause of late-life depression. Cerebral white matter lesions are thought to represent vascular abnormalities. White matter lesions have been related to affective disorders and a history of late-onset depression in psychiatric patients. Their relation with mood disturbances in the general population is not known. We investigated the relation between white matter lesions and the presence of depressive symptoms or a history of depression in a population-based study.

Methods  In a sample of 1077 nondemented elderly adults, we assessed the presence and severity of subcortical and periventricular white matter lesions using magnetic resonance imaging, presence of depressive symptoms, and history of depression. Using multiple regression analysis, we examined the relation among white matter lesions, depressive symptoms, and history of depression.

Results  Most of the subjects had white matter lesions. Persons with severe white matter lesions (upper quintile) were 3 to 5 times more likely to have depressive symptoms as compared with persons with only mild or no white matter lesions (lowest quintile) (periventricular odds ratio [OR] = 3.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-9.5; subcortical OR = 5.4; 95% CI, 1.8-16.5). In addition, persons with severe subcortical but not periventricular white matter lesions were more likely to have had a history of depression with an onset after age 60 years (OR = 3.4; 95% CI, 1.1-10.7) compared with persons with only mild or no white matter lesions.

Conclusion  The severity of subcortical white matter lesions is related to the presence of depressive symptoms and to a history of late-onset depression.

From the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Drs de Groot, de Leeuw, Hofman, and Breteler) and Radiology (Dr Oudkerk), Erasmus University Medical School, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; and the Department of Neuropsychology, Neuropsychiatry, and Psychobiology (Dr Jolles), University Maastricht, the Netherlands.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Differential Impact of Lacunes and Microvascular Lesions on Poststroke Depression
Santos et al.
Stroke 2009;40:3557-3562.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

APOE-{epsilon}4, Depressive Symptoms, and Cognitive Decline in Chinese Older Adults: Singapore Longitudinal Aging Studies
Niti et al.
J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2009;64A:306-311.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Subjective cognitive failures and hippocampal volume in elderly with white matter lesions
van Norden et al.
Neurology 2008;71:1152-1159.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Depression, Disability and Intermediate Pathways: A Review of Longitudinal Studies in Elders
Schillerstrom et al.
J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 2008;21:183-197.
ABSTRACT  

Depressive symptoms and risk of stroke: the Rotterdam Study
Bos et al.
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2008;79:997-1001.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Meta-analysis, Database, and Meta-regression of 98 Structural Imaging Studies in Bipolar Disorder
Kempton et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2008;65:1017-1032.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

White Matter Lesions and Cognitive Performance: The Role of Cognitively Complex Leisure Activity
Saczynski et al.
Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 2008;63:848-854.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Self-perceived memory impairment and cognitive performance in an elderly independent population with age-related white matter changes
Miranda et al.
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2008;79:869-873.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Apolipoprotein E {varepsilon}4 Allele Genotype and the Effect of Depressive Symptoms on the Risk of Dementia in Men: The Honolulu-Asia Aging Study
Irie et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2008;65:906-912.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Amyloid-Associated Depression: A Prodromal Depression of Alzheimer Disease?
Sun et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2008;65:542-550.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Cardiac Disease, Depressive Symptoms, and Incident Stroke in an Elderly Population
Wouts et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2008;65:596-602.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

History of depression, depressive symptoms, and medial temporal lobe atrophy and the risk of Alzheimer disease
Geerlings et al.
Neurology 2008;70:1258-1264.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

White matter changes in dementia: does radiology matter?
BRONGE and WAHLUND
Br. J. Radiol. 2007;80:S115-S120.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Incidental Findings on Brain MRI in the General Population
Vernooij et al.
NEJM 2007;357:1821-1828.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

White matter changes and late-life depressive symptoms: Longitudinal study
Teodorczuk et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2007;191:212-217.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Hippocampal volume and subcortical white matter lesions in late life depression: comparison of early and late onset depression
Janssen et al.
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2007;78:638-640.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Vascular risk factors and incident late-life depression in a Korean population
Kim et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2006;189:26-30.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Depressive symptoms, vascular disease, and mild cognitive impairment: findings from the cardiovascular health study.
Barnes et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2006;63:273-279.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Brain white-matter hyperintensities and treatment outcome in major depressive disorder
IOSIFESCU et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2006;188:180-185.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Plasma {beta}-amyloid and white matter lesions in AD, MCI, and cerebral amyloid angiopathy
Gurol et al.
Neurology 2006;66:23-29.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Generalized atherosclerosis, cognitive decline, and depressive symptoms in old age
Vinkers et al.
Neurology 2005;65:107-112.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

MRI Hyperintensities and Depressive Symptoms in a Community Sample of Individuals 60-64 Years Old
Jorm et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2005;162:699-705.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Localizing Gray Matter Deficits in Late-Onset Depression Using Computational Cortical Pattern Matching Methods
Ballmaier et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2004;161:2091-2099.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

A fetal circle of Willis is associated with a decreased deep white matter lesion load
van der Grond et al.
Neurology 2004;63:1452-1456.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Cerebral White Matter Changes and Geriatric Syndromes: Is There a Link?
Kuo and Lipsitz
Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 2004;59:M818-M826.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Vascular disease/risk and late-life depression in a Korean community population
KIM et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2004;185:102-107.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Relationship Between Atherosclerosis and Late-Life Depression: The Rotterdam Study
Tiemeier et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2004;61:369-376.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Anterior Cingulate, Gyrus Rectus, and Orbitofrontal Abnormalities in Elderly Depressed Patients: An MRI-Based Parcellation of the Prefrontal Cortex
Ballmaier et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2004;161:99-108.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Depressive symptoms, clinical AD, and cortical plaques and tangles in older persons
Wilson et al.
Neurology 2003;61:1102-1107.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Ischemic Basis for Deep White Matter Hyperintensities in Major Depression: A Neuropathological Study
Thomas et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2002;59:785-792.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Cerebrovascular Disease and Evolution of Depressive Symptoms in the Cardiovascular Health Study
Steffens et al.
Stroke 2002;33:1636-1644.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

A 75-Year-Old Man With Depression
Kroenke
JAMA 2002;287:1568-1576.
FULL TEXT  

Executive dysfunction in subcortical ischaemic vascular disease
Kramer et al.
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2002;72:217-220.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Paranoid Psychoses in Old Age: Much More Common Than Previously Thought?
Breitner
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2002;59:60-61.
FULL TEXT  

Cerebral white matter lesions and subjective cognitive dysfunction: The Rotterdam Scan Study
de Groot et al.
Neurology 2001;56:1539-1545.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT