The effect of antidepressants on brain volume

In this review, we summarise all studies of patients with depression, who have been examined by MRI before and after treatment with antidepressants. None of the studies showed any signs of damage to the brain tissue after treatment. On the contrary, most studies showed increases in hippocampal volume and prefrontal cortices in parallel with response or remission after treatment. As depression in several meta-analyses has been shown to double the risk for dementia, this could have important implications for preventive measures, because, for instance, hippocampal atrophy is seen in both diseases.