Long-term MRI study links gray matter decline to cumulative depression severity, not diagnosis alone

In 206 participants followed up to 10 years with 791 MRI scans, higher cumulative depression severity predicted steeper hippocampal (ηp2=0.261) and dlPFC (ηp2=0.216) gray matter loss, while diagnosis alone showed no differential change.

• A single-center longitudinal case-control study (Münster Neuroimaging Cohort) with 57 MDD patients and 149 controls scanned up to 6 times over a decade.
• The associations remained significant after controlling for acute symptom severity and medication use, suggesting a trait-like progressive effect.
• No overall differential gray matter trajectories were found between MDD and control groups when ignoring cumulative illness burden.

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