Decreased Medial Prefrontal Cortex Glutamate Levels in Perimenopausal Women
There is an increased risk of experiencing depression during perimenopause (PM), a period of rapidly changing female hormone concentrations. Women at particular risk of developing major depression (MD) during PM are those with history of mood sensitivity to female hormone fluctuations i.e., women wi...
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Published in | Frontiers in psychiatry Vol. 12; p. 763562 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Switzerland
Frontiers Media S.A
13.12.2021
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | There is an increased risk of experiencing depression during perimenopause (PM), a period of rapidly changing female hormone concentrations. Women at particular risk of developing major depression (MD) during PM are those with history of mood sensitivity to female hormone fluctuations i.e., women with a history of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and/or post-partum depression (PPD). Depressive symptomology has been associated with fluctuations of glutamate (Glu) levels in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) in MD patients as well as PMDD and PPD patients. The objective of the study was to compare MPFC Glu levels in healthy perimenopausal and reproductive-aged (RD) women.
Medial prefrontal cortex Glu levels in healthy perimenopausal (
= 15) and healthy RD women (
= 16) were compared
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) scan using a 3 Tesla (T) magnet. Absence of depressive symptomology and psychiatric comorbidity was confirmed
semi-structured interview. Participants were scanned during the early follicular phase (FP) of the menstrual cycle (MC).
Mean MPFC Glu concentrations were decreased in the PM group compared to RD group (PM mean = 0.57 ± 0.03, RD mean = 0.63 ± 0.06,
= -3.84,
= 23.97,
= 0.001).
Perimenopause is associated with decreases in MPFC Glu levels. This decrease may be contributing to the increased risk of experiencing depression during PM. Further research should assess MPFC Glu levels in perimenopausal women suffering from MD. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 This article was submitted to Aging Psychiatry, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry Reviewed by: Fabrizio Piras, Santa Lucia Foundation (IRCCS), Italy; Lejla Colic, Yale University, United States These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship Edited by: Gianfranco Spalletta, Santa Lucia Foundation (IRCCS), Italy |
ISSN: | 1664-0640 1664-0640 |
DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.763562 |