Brainstem Raphe Lesion in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder and in Patients With Suicidal Ideation Recorded on Transcranial Sonography

This study assessed the usefulness of transcranial sonography recording in a group of 17 patients with major depressive disorder & 14 patients with major depressive disorder who also reported suicide ideation. 40 healthy controls were included in the study. Reduced raphe echogenicity was found in 8 of 17 patients with major depressive disorder but only in 6 of 40 controls. In patients with suicide ideation, this finding was even more pronounced (12 of 14) with the highest frequency of completely not visible transcranial sonography raphe nuclei (10 of 14). Altered echogenicity of the raphe nuclei is frequent in patients with suicide ideation. Normal raphe nuclei echogenicity in patients with major depressive disorder was rarely associated with the presence of suicide ideation. (25 refs.) JA