“Cerebral Blood Flow (CBF)” is impaired in depressed women and this condition is a strong indication of its potential pathophysiological role.
A recent research study conducted at the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan revealed this fact immediately after the satisfactory tests and trials. This study was conducted under the leadership and supervision of the lead researcher Wei-Jen Yao and his colleague researchers.

The research findings reveal that the “Hypofrontality” is a medical term that indicates reduced blood flow and metabolism in the prefrontal cortex. Hypofrontality has consistently been associated with major depression and typically normalizes following recovery.

During this study, the Taiwanese research team used ‘single-photon-emission computed tomography (SPECT)’ to investigate hypofrontality in 20 untreated postmenopausal women. All of these untreated postmenopausal women patients had developed depression within a decade of menopause.

Researchers then compiled all the data and conducted a ‘Baseline Assessment’ that revealed no association between frontal CBF and the severity of depressive symptoms.
Wei-Jen Yao at the “National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan along with the colleague research scientists also observed that during the Wisconsin card-sorting test, which measures cognitive function, scores were lower in women with more severe depression.

Furthermore the study also outlines the facts that the change in CBF during the test inversely correlated with depression severity and positively correlated with scores on the mini-mental state examination, which also assesses cognitive function.

Researchers also observe that taken together, these results indicate that postmenopausal women with moderate or severe depression exhibit ‘hypofrontality’ and that this abnormality is related to impaired cognitive function.

“The combination of the functional activation test and SPECT imaging powerfully revealed this functional disease, which remains undetectably using more common baseline measurements”, says Wei-Jen Yao at the “National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.

This article is the property of http://www.Healthpm.com
Copying and publishing any article from our site is strictly NOT allowed