ArticleEuropean archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience2009
Substantia nigra hyperechogenicity in depressive subjects relates to motor asymmetry and impaired word fluency.
Article in European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Influence of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on psychomotor symptoms in major depression.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2010Trial
- The correlates of hyperechogenicity of the substantia nigra in subjects at risk of dementia with Lewy bodies.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Article
- Impact of subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation on voice and speech in Parkinson's disease.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2026Observational
- State-of-the-Art Transcranial Sonography for Neuropsychiatric and Dementia Disorders: A Narrative Review.Cureus · 2025Review
- The effect of subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation on speech performance: a prospective clinical and tractography study.Acta neurochirurgica · 2024Article
- Combined cognitive, psychomotor and electrophysiological biomarkers in major depressive disorder.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2019Article
- Cognitive Performance Patterns in Healthy Individuals with Substantia Nigra Hyperechogenicity and Early Parkinson's Disease.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2016Article
- Prediction of Parkinson's disease subsequent to severe depression: a ten-year follow-up study.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2015Observational
- The functional anatomy of psychomotor disturbances in major depressive disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2015Review
- Neural and behavioral substrates of subtypes of Parkinson's disease.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2013Review
- [Early recognition of Parkinson's disease. Objectifiable non-motor symptoms and biomarkers].Der Nervenarzt · 2013Review
- Article
- Specificity of transcranial sonography in parkinson spectrum disorders in comparison to degenerative cognitive syndromes.BMC neurology · 2012Article
- Characterization of spontaneous Parkinsonism in drug-naive patients with nonaffective psychotic disorders.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2012Article
- Achievement and maintenance of the new impact factor 2010.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2011Article
- Substantia nigra hyperechogenicity is a risk marker of Parkinson's disease: no.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2011Article
- Brainstem raphe lesion in patients with major depressive disorder and in patients with suicidal ideation recorded on transcranial sonography.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2010Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSubstantia nigra hyperechogenicity (SNH) is a characteristic transcranial sonography (TCS) finding in Parkinson's disease (PD). SNH, found also in about 10% of healthy adults, was related to a subclinical malfunction of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system on positron emission tomography studies. Both, liability for developing PD and frequency of SNH were found to be increased in depressed subjects. Here, we investigated whether SNH in depression is related to motor or cognitive abnormalities resembling early PD.
methodsFourty-one patients with major depressive disorder and 15 with adjustment disorder with depressed mood were studied clinically and with TCS.
resultsFrequency of SNH was similar in both groups (39, 33%; Chi-square test, P = 0.70). Larger SN echogenic size correlated with larger right-to-left asymmetry of finger tapping (Spearman test, r = 0.37, P = 0.009) and lower verbal fluency (r = -0.35, P = 0.038). These correlations were stronger in patients at ages >/= 50 years (r = 0.52, P = 0.007; r = -0.50, P = 0.020), and, independently from age, in patients with reduced echogenicity of brainstem raphe suggested to reflect alteration of the serotonergic system (r = 0.40, P = 0.045; r = -0.51, P = 0.044). Whereas bilateral sum score of finger tapping was negatively correlated with severity of depression on the beck depression inventory (r = -0.50, P = 0.001) and the Hamilton depression rating scale (r = -0.34, P = 0.019), no correlation was found between depression severity and tapping asymmetry, or between depression severity and verbal fluency.
conclusionData suggest that TCS detects a subgroup of patients with depression characterized by symptoms of early parkinsonism who are possibly at an elevated risk of later developing definite PD.
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