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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease that steadily erodes the ability for nerve cells to communicate and this leads to all kinds of neurological symptoms, often slowly progressing to severe cognitive and physical disability.
But one of the most common symptoms is depression. It’s often attributed to the mental toll of managing the disease which has no cure.
But recent research published in the journal Biological Psychiatry describes a physical connection between MS and mood.
Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scientists found that the hippocampus, the brain area responsible for long-term memory, is smaller in people suffering from MS than in healthy adults.
They found a connection between this atrophy in the hippocampus and a hyperactivitiy in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (or HPA axis) in MS sufferers. The HPA axis is part of the neuroendocrine system that manages stress.
The authors note that this link between hyperactivity in the HPA and an atrophied hippocampus is consistently seen in those with chronic depression, yet this correlation has never been studied in MS patients.
The next step, of course, is to compare depressed populations—those with MS and those without—to look for any significant differences in how depression progresses in each case.
—Christie Nicholson
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5 Comments
Add CommentMaybe I'm missing something, but it seems to been previously established that:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this- MS sufferers commonly (perhaps understandably) also suffer from depression.
- An atrophied hippocampus and hyperactivity in the HPA is consistently seen in those suffering from chronic depression.
So why should an MRI study of MS sufferers indicating an atrophied hippocampus and HPA hyperactivity be considered a significant result?
This seems to me to be yet another example of MRI studies without any other methods of analysis to determine any causal associations with their observations. These studies appear to be primarily aimed at justifying the institutional cost of MRI access.
It's fascinating that the hippocampus affects both memory and mood. While mood can be treated with medications, I haven't heard of any treatments for memory problems. Anybody heard of any?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi'm not a health professional of any sort so i could be completely misguided but i thought the ability to see inside our heads led to people asking questions about why a process may be happening.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou need to be able to see a thing is so before you can start asking why, no?
deezll - I don't do math but I'll try a simple logical equation:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf MS~Depression
and Depression~(atrophied hippocampus and HPA hyperactivity)
then MS~(atrophied hippocampus and HPA hyperactivity).
I'm just saying that it should have been expected that the atrophied hippocampus and HPA hyperactivity would also appear in MS patients with depression.
This report of the confirmation of what should have been an expected result seems to be presented as if it were a new discovery, warranting a new study.
If the detection of an atrophied hippocampus and HPA hyperactivity in MS patients had led to the previously unknown discovery that they were also depressed, this would have been a new discovery produced by MRI imaging technology.
Maybe it's just me...
jtdwyer - It is part of the scientific process. Nothing is true until it is proven true. This includes the painfully obvious because frequently the painfully obvious isn't correct. An example would be stress causing ulcers and only being treatable by antacids and reducing stress or surgery in severe cases. It turned out that stress is only mildly related and simple antibiotics cures must ulcers .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat is why studies like this that seem rather silly (to me anyway) might have some use in the long term. Then again, it could be a waste of hard to come by grant money.