Depression can be sorted into six distinctive types involving different brain activity Brain scans could potentially determine the best treatment for a person’s depression Types were identified that responded better to antidepressants or talk therapy MONDAY, June 17, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Depression can be sorted into six distinct types using brain scans, a revelation that could improve treatment for many suffering the debilitating mood disorder. Researchers analyzed brain scans to identify six different biological types of depression , based on differences in patterns of brain activity, according to results published June 17 in the journal c . These differences allowed researchers to single out the potentially best treatments for three of the depression types, results show.
“To our knowledge, this is the first time we’ve been able to demonstrate that depression can be explained by different disruptions to the functioning of the brain,” said senior researcher Leanne Williams , director of Stanford Medicine’s Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness. “In essence, it’s a demonstration of a personalized medicine approach for mental health based on objective measures of brain function,” Williams said in a Stanford news release. If these findings hold, people diagnosed with depression could one day undergo a brain scan to reveal the treatment that would best work for them.
About 30% of people with depression don’t respond at all to either medication or .
