• Nils Opel, Ronny Redlich, Dominik Grotegerd, Katharina Dohm, Walter Heindel, Harald Kugel, Volker Arolt, and Udo Dannlowski.
• Department of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 11, 48149 Münster Germany.
• Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2015 Jan 1;51:219-26.

AbstractObesity is one of the most prevalent somatic comorbidities of major depressive disorder (MDD). Both disorders rank among the leading challenges in public health and have been independently characterized by gray matter alterations in partly overlapping brain structures. Hence, it appears crucial to investigate the possibility of a shared neurostructural correlate of this frequent comorbidity as well as its clinical implications. One hundred and fourty-four patients suffering from acute MDD and 141 healthy control subjects underwent structural MRI. Imaging data were analyzed using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Body-mass-index (BMI) as well as state and course of disease were assessed. Higher BMI was associated with a highly comparable pattern of gray matter reductions in the medial prefrontal cortex, the orbitofrontal cortex, the caudate nucleus and the thalamus in MDD patients and healthy controls alike. In MDD-patients, BMI was associated with a more chronic course of disease and both BMI and chronicity of disorder were related to similar morphometric anomalies in medial prefrontal areas. In MDD, obese subjects might be characterized by a more chronic course of disease. Moreover, obesity and chronicity of disorder seem to share overlapping neurostructural anomalies in prefrontal areas involved in emotion regulation and impulse control. Hence, our data provide evidence for specific morphological alterations underlying this prevalent comorbidity. It further underlines the clinical importance of preventive measures against obesity accompanying MDD treatment.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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