Hippocampal subfield volumes in treatment resistant depression and serial ketamine treatment

Subanesthetic ketamine is a rapidly acting antidepressant that has also been found to improve neurocognitive performance in adult patients with treatment resistant depression (TRD). Provisional evidence suggests that ketamine may induce change in hippocampal volume and that larger pre-treatment volumes might be related to positive clinical outcomes. Here, we examine the effects of serial ketamine treatment on hippocampal subfield volumes and relationships between pre-treatment subfield volumes and changes in depressive symptoms and neurocognitive performance.

Patients with TRD (N = 66; 31M/35F; age = 39.5 ± 11.1 years) received four ketamine infusions (0.5 mg/kg) over 2 weeks. Structural MRI scans, the National Institutes of Health Toolbox (NIHT) Cognition Battery, and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) were collected at baseline, 24 h after the first and fourth ketamine infusion, and 5 weeks post-treatment. The same data was collected for 32 age and sex matched healthy controls (HC; 17M/15F; age = 35.03 ± 12.2 years) at one timepoint. Subfield (CA1/CA3/CA4/subiculum/molecular layer/GC-ML-DG) volumes corrected for whole hippocampal volume were compared across time, between treatment remitters/non-remitters, and patients and HCs using linear regression models. Relationships between pre-treatment subfield volumes and clinical and cognitive outcomes were also tested. All analyses included Bonferroni correction.

Patients had smaller pre-treatment left CA4 (p = 0.004) and GC.ML.DG (p = 0.004) volumes compared to HC, but subfield volumes remained stable following ketamine treatment (all p > 0.05). Pre-treatment or change in hippocampal subfield volumes over time showed no variation by remission status nor correlated with depressive symptoms (p > 0.05). Pre-treatment left CA4 was negatively correlated with improved processing speed after single (p = 0.0003) and serial ketamine infusion (p = 0.005). Left GC.ML.DG also negatively correlated with improved processing speed after single infusion (p = 0.001). Right pre-treatment CA3 positively correlated with changes in list sorting working memory at follow-up (p = 0.0007).

These results provide new evidence to suggest that hippocampal subfield volumes at baseline may present a biomarker for neurocognitive improvement following ketamine treatment in TRD. In contrast, pre-treatment subfield volumes and changes in subfield volumes showed negligible relationships with ketamine-related improvements in depressive symptoms.