Precuneal Thickness and Depression in Parkinson Disease

Depression-related gray matter changes in Parkinson disease (PD) patients have been reported, although studies investigating cortical thickness in early-stage disease are lacking.

We aimed to evaluate cortical changes related to depression in early-stage PD patients with an extensive neuropsychological evaluation.

17 PD patients and 22 healthy controls underwent a 1.5-T brain MR protocol, and voxel-wise differences in cortical thickness among patients with (n = 6) and without (n = 11) depression and controls were evaluated using FreeSurfer software.

Cortical thickness was increased in the precuneus bilaterally in PD patients with depression compared to the other groups (number of vertices >100; p < 0.001, uncorrected) with a direct correlation with the Beck Depression Inventory score (p < 0.001, uncorrected).

Precuneal cortical thickening is evident in PD patients with mild-moderate depression even in the early stages of the disease. This finding may reflect the early involvement of this region in the development of PD-related depression.