TY - JOUR
T1 - Structural changes in the hippocampus as a biomarker for cognitive improvements in neuropsychiatric disorders
T2 - A systematic review
AU - Ott, Caroline Vintergaard
AU - Johnson, Claire Bergstrom
AU - Macoveanu, Julian
AU - Miskowiak, Kamilla Woznica
PY - 2019/3/1
Y1 - 2019/3/1
N2 - Cognitive impairments are a core feature of several neuropsychiatric disorders. A common biomarker for pro-cognitive effects may provide a much-needed tool to select amongst candidate treatments targeting cognition. The hippocampus is a promising biomarker for target-engagement due to the illness-associated morphological hippocampal changes across unipolar disorder (UD), bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SCZ). Following the PRISMA guidelines, we searched PubMed and Embase, for clinical trials targeting cognition across neuropsychiatric disorders, with longitudinal structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of the hippocampus. Five randomized and three open-label trials were included. Hippocampal volume increases were associated with treatment-related cognitive improvement following treatment with erythropoietin across UD, BD and SCZ, lithium treatment in BD and aerobic exercise in SCZ. Conversely, an exercise intervention in UD showed no effect on hippocampal volume or cognition. Together, these observations point to hippocampal volume change as a putative biomarker-model for cognitive improvement. Future cognition trials are encouraged to include MRI assessments pre- and post-treatment to assess the validity of hippocampal changes as a biomarker for pro-cognitive effects.
AB - Cognitive impairments are a core feature of several neuropsychiatric disorders. A common biomarker for pro-cognitive effects may provide a much-needed tool to select amongst candidate treatments targeting cognition. The hippocampus is a promising biomarker for target-engagement due to the illness-associated morphological hippocampal changes across unipolar disorder (UD), bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SCZ). Following the PRISMA guidelines, we searched PubMed and Embase, for clinical trials targeting cognition across neuropsychiatric disorders, with longitudinal structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of the hippocampus. Five randomized and three open-label trials were included. Hippocampal volume increases were associated with treatment-related cognitive improvement following treatment with erythropoietin across UD, BD and SCZ, lithium treatment in BD and aerobic exercise in SCZ. Conversely, an exercise intervention in UD showed no effect on hippocampal volume or cognition. Together, these observations point to hippocampal volume change as a putative biomarker-model for cognitive improvement. Future cognition trials are encouraged to include MRI assessments pre- and post-treatment to assess the validity of hippocampal changes as a biomarker for pro-cognitive effects.
KW - Biomarker
KW - Bipolar disorder
KW - Hippocampus
KW - Neuropsychiatric disorders
KW - Schizophrenia
KW - Unipolar disorder
U2 - 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2019.01.105
DO - 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2019.01.105
M3 - Review
C2 - 30654916
AN - SCOPUS:85059868483
SN - 0924-977X
VL - 29
SP - 319
EP - 329
JO - European Neuropsychopharmacology
JF - European Neuropsychopharmacology
IS - 3
ER -