Background

As an adjunct to antidepressant treatment, Tai Chi Chih (TCC) is superior to health education and wellness (HEW) training in improving the general health of patients with geriatric depression (GD). This study investigated the brain connectivity changes associated with TCC and HEW in combination with antidepressant treatment in patients with GD.

Methods

Forty patients with GD under stable antidepressant treatment underwent TCC training (n = 21) or HEW training (n = 19) for 12 weeks, and completed baseline and 3-month follow-up resting state magnetic resonance imaging scans. Within-group and between-group differences in parcel-to-parcel connectivity changes with intervention were evaluated by general linear modeling. Relationships between significant connectivity changes and symptom/resilience improvement were evaluated by partial least squares correlation analysis.

Results

Significantly greater increases in connectivity with TCC than with HEW (FDR-corrected p < .05) were observed for 167 pairwise connections, most frequently involving the default mode network (DMN). In both groups, increased connectivity involving largely DMN regions was significantly and positively correlated with improvement in symptoms/resilience.

Limitations

The sample size was relatively small, mainly due to neuroimaging contraindications (e.g., implants). Additionally, the standard antidepressant treatment varied greatly among patients, adding heterogeneity.

Conclusions

Non-pharmacological adjuncts, such as TCC, may enhance DMN connectivity changes associated with improved depressive symptoms and psychological resilience in the treatment of GD.

中文翻译：

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太极作为辅助治疗对老年抑郁症大脑连接的影响

背景

作为抗抑郁治疗的辅助手段，太极拳 (TCC) 在改善老年抑郁症 (GD) 患者的总体健康方面优于健康教育和保健 (HEW) 训练。本研究调查了 GD 患者与 TCC 和 HEW 联合抗抑郁治疗相关的脑连接变化。

方法

40 名接受稳定抗抑郁治疗的 GD 患者接受了为期 12 周的 TCC 训练（n = 21）或 HEW 训练（n = 19），并完成了基线和 3 个月的随访静息态磁共振成像扫描。通过一般线性模型评估了干预后宗地间连通性变化的组内和组间差异。通过偏最小二乘相关分析评估显着连通性变化与症状/恢复力改善之间的关系。

结果

对于 167 个成对连接，观察到与 HEW 相比，TCC 的连接性显着增加（FDR 校正 p < .05），最常见的是默认模式网络 (DMN)。在两组中，主要涉及 DMN 区域的连通性增加与症状/恢复力的改善显着正相关。

限制

样本量相对较小，主要是由于神经影像学禁忌症（例如，植入物）。此外，标准抗抑郁药治疗在患者之间差异很大，增加了异质性。

结论

非药物辅助药物，如 TCC，可能会增强与改善 GD 治疗中的抑郁症状和心理弹性相关的 DMN 连接变化。