MUST READ: Why do some people suffer from recurrent depression? Illness SHRINKS key part of the brain

People who suffer with repeated bouts of depression may be less able to form new memories, a study has found.

Those who suffer chronic depression have a significantly smaller hippocampus than healthy individuals, researchers discovered.

The mental illness tends to shrink this area of the brain, they said.

The hippocampus is the part associated with creating new memories, storing memories and connecting them to our emotions.

Memory and emotion are linked, as we tend to form memories around emotional events - for example we remember a person who made us laugh or embarrassed us.

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While people who suffered one episode of depression had a similar-sized hippocampus to a healthy individual, this area of the brain shrunk in those who experienced repeated bouts of the mood disorder.

This suggests depression itself shrinks the hippocampus, the University of Sydney researchers said.

Therefore, the study highlights the need to treat depression early, particularly in teenagers and young adults, they concluded.

The global research, which looked at nearly 9,000 people, is the largest to compare brain volumes in people with and without depression.

The illness is a common condition affecting at least one in six people during their lifetime.

It is a serious condition in which feelings of sadness, frustration, loss, or anger interfere with a person's everyday life for weeks, months or years at a time.

Researchers used MRI scans and data from 1,728 people with major depression and 7,199 healthy individuals, and combined 15 sets of data from Europe, the USA and Australia.

In the study, people with recurrent depression represented the majority (65 per cent) of people with chronic depression.

Those who were diagnosed with depression before the age of 21 years were also found to have a smaller hippocampus than healthy individuals.

It is already known that people diagnosed before this age tend to go on to have repeated bouts of the mood disorder.

However, those who had one episode of depression (34 per cent of people in the study) did not have a smaller hippocampus than healthy individuals.

This indicates that the illness itself causes the brain's hippocampus to shrink.

'These findings shed new light on brain structures and possible mechanisms responsible for depression,' said Jim Lagopoulos, who carried out the research.

'Despite intensive research aimed at identifying brain structures linked to depression in recent decades, our understanding of what causes depression is still rudimentary.

'One reason for this has been the lack of sufficiently large studies, variability in the disease and treatments provided, and the complex interactions between clinical characteristics and brain structure.'

Professor Ian Hickie, also of the University of Sydney, added the research shows the need to treat depression early, before it causes changes in the brain.

He said: 'This large study confirms the need to treat first episodes of depression effectively, particularly in teenagers and young adults, to prevent the brain changes that accompany recurrent depression.

'This is another reason that we need to ensure that young people receive effective treatments for depression,' he concluded.

The study was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

- DailyMail

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