Brain function in psychiatric disorders. II. Regional cerebral blood flow in medicated unipolar depressives.

Regional cerebral blood flow was measured during resting baseline and the performance of a verbal and a spatial task in 14 medicated depressives and 25 matched controls. Overall resting flows did not differ, nor were there hemispheric or anteroposterior differences between patients and controls for resting flows. Differences between patients and controls were evident during cognitive activity, and the effects were different for male and female patients. Depressed female patients had higher than normal flows in all conditions, whereas depressed male patients had lower than normal resting flows, which increased to normal during cognitive activity. Their anterior flows increased for the verbal task but not for the spatial task.