The neural basis of treatment-induced remission in depression: an fMRI and pharmacoMRI study

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We are trying to find out why some people with depression get better when treated with antidepressant drugs and why some fail to improve. Understanding this will allow us to be better able to match people with treatments that work for them, and to design better treatments. A major gap in our understanding is how an emotional disorder like depression can be due to physical changes in the working of the brain, and how drug treatments can work on the brain to improve feelingsThis research will help to bridge the gap by using brain imaging to identify abnormalities in the way the brain processes emotional cues in depression together with visualising the working of a key brain chemical, serotonin, that we know is involved in mood and depression. We will test people with depression to find out how their brains’ reaction to emotional cues is altered and, using a new technique, how the serotonin system is working in parts of the brain that are responsible for emotion. Following treatment with an antidepressant we will test them again to find out how their improvement is linked to changes in emotional processing, and what predicts who will respond to the antidepressant.