Project Summary

Martin H. Teicher, M.D., Ph.D. (Independent Investigator 2005) of McLean Hospital/Harvard University, hypothesizes that exposure to early stress or loss has been a largely unrecognized factor that has confounded understanding of the neurobiology of major depression. Parceling out the difference between major depression associated with severe early stress or loss, and major depression without early stress is of critical importance for understanding the neurobiology of this disorder, and may help to better understand what underlies certain types of treatment resistant depression. Childhood abuse is associated with a host of neurobiological abnormalities including: EEG changes, attenuated maturation of the left hemisphere, as well as structural changes in the corpus callosum, adult hippocampus, and cortex. Most studies have been conducted with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, and not on subjects with early trauma who present with recurrent depressions. Further, Dr. Teicher now has evidence that vulnerability of different brain regions to the effects of early stress varies across age with the hippocampus being particularly sensitive to early childhood stress and the prefrontal cortex showing more vulnerability to traumatic stress during adolescence. Childhood trauma or loss has come to light as a factor that may identify a subgroup of depressed patients who respond poorly to antidepressants but benefit from a specific form of psychotherapy. Dr. Teicher hypothesizes that unipolar depression may be associated with at least three different patterns of morphological and syndromic abnormalities based on the presence or absence of childhood abuse or loss, and the age of occurrence of severe stress. He will analyze MRI scans from four groups: healthy young adults; unmedicated young adults with a history of recurrent depression but no history of abuse, early loss or exposure to other traumatic events; unmedicated young adults with a history of recurrent depression and traumatic stress at 5-7 years of age; and unmedicated young adults with recurrent depression and traumatic stress at 15-17 years of age. This project will extend the scope of Dr. Teicher’s current NIH study (which focuses on the role of depression as a mediating factor connecting early stress with later substance abuse), to provide critically important information on the contribution of early traumatic stress to the neurobiology of depression.

Program Area: MOOD DISORDERS\Unipolar

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