This project aims to use functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI) to study patients with unipolar and bipolar depression receiving ECT. Patients will be scanned before and after a full course of ECT and clinical measures for depression severity and memory will be obtained at the same times.The project has the following aims and hypothesis: (1) to determine the therapeutic antidepressant mechanism of action of ECT at the circuit level (2) to determine the mechanism of action of iatrogenic amnesia caused by ECT at the circuit level (3) to study the use of fcMRI as a state biomarker for depression (4) to study the use of fcMRI as a predictor of response for depression.
This is an observational neuroimaging study assessing the effects of ECT on the brains of patients with unipolar and bipolar depression.