Contact

  • Academic
    atartt@stanford.edu
    University - Student Department: School of Medicine Position: Graduate, Medicine

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 5151

All Publications

  • Subcortical volumes in offspring with a multigenerational family history of depression - A study across two cohorts. Journal of affective disorders van Dijk, M. T., Tartt, A. N., Murphy, E., Gameroff, M. J., Semanek, D., Cha, J., Weissman, M. M., Posner, J., Talati, A. 2024

    Abstract

    Having multiple previous generations with depression in the family increases offspring risk for psychopathology. Parental depression has been associated with smaller subcortical brain volumes in their children, but whether two prior generations with depression is associated with further decreases is unclear.Using two independent cohorts, 1) a Three-Generation Study (TGS, N = 65) with direct clinical interviews of adults and children across all three generations, and 2) the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD, N = 10,626) of 9-10 year-old children with family history assessed by a caregiver, we tested whether having more generations of depression in the family was associated with smaller subcortical volumes (using structural MRI).In TGS, caudate, pallidum and putamen showed decreasing volumes with higher familial risk for depression. Having a parent and a grandparent with depression was associated with decreased volume compared to having no familial depression in these regions. Putamen volume was associated with depression at eight-year follow-up. In ABCD, smaller pallidum and putamen were associated with family history, which was driven by parental depression, regardless of grandparental depression.Discrepancies between cohorts could be due to interview type (clinical or self-report) and informant (individual or common informant), sample size or age. Future analyses of follow-up ABCD waves will be able to assess whether effects of grandparental depression on brain markers become more apparent as the children enter young adulthood.Basal ganglia regional volumes are significantly smaller in offspring with a family history of depression in two independent cohorts.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jad.2024.07.107

    View details for PubMedID 39029692

  • Electroconvulsive therapy-a shocking inducer of neuroplasticity? Molecular psychiatry Tartt, A. N., Mariani, M., Hen, R., Mann, J. J., Boldrini, M. 2023

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41380-023-02015-0

    View details for PubMedID 36869226

  • Dysregulation of adult hippocampal neuroplasticity in major depression: pathogenesis and therapeutic implications. Molecular psychiatry Tartt, A. N., Mariani, M. B., Hen, R., Mann, J. J., Boldrini, M. 2022

    Abstract

    Major depressive disorder (MDD) was previously hypothesized to be a disease of monoamine deficiency in which low levels of monoamines in the synaptic cleft were believed to underlie depressive symptoms. More recently, however, there has been a paradigm shift toward a neuroplasticity hypothesis of depression in which downstream effects of antidepressants, such as increased neurogenesis, contribute to improvements in cognition and mood. This review takes a top-down approach to assess how changes in behavior and hippocampal-dependent circuits may be attributed to abnormalities at the molecular, structural, and synaptic level. We conclude with a discussion of how antidepressant treatments share a common effect in modulating neuroplasticity and consider outstanding questions and future perspectives.

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41380-022-01520-y

    View details for PubMedID 35354926