Affective disorders have been increasingly recognized in neurodegenerative diseases and often result in poor quality of life. However, the frequency, clinical relevance, and anatomical substrate of depression in Friedreich's ataxia were not yet evaluated. We assessed 22 patients with Friedreich's ataxia for major depression using Beck Depression Inventory and cerebral 3T MRI scans. We then employed whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analyses on volumetric T1 datasets to compare tissue loss between patients with and without major depression.

Read More: Neuroanatomical Correlates of Depression in Friedreich's Ataxia: a Voxel-Based Morphometry Study