Several studies report that vascular lesions contribute to depression in late life, but whether vascular lesions contribute to depression or indeed result from depression is debatable. To address this question, we segregated mood disorder patients into late- and early-onset mood disorder groups (LOM and EOM, respectively) and compared the areas of high intensity on the subcortical MRI scans of the 2 groups. We found that the LOM group exhibited higher ratings than the EOM group; significant between-group differences were detected in the bilateral frontal areas and in the left parieto-occipital area. Our results suggest that vascular lesions in these areas are crucial for the development of late-onset mood disorders. Furthermore, treatment is often difficult in depressed patients with cerebrovascular lesions. Therefore, a new therapeutic approach that takes into account cerebrovascular factors is necessary. We concomitantly administered cilostazol with conventional antidepressants to patients with intractable geriatric major depressive disorder; of these patients, 2 showed improvements of their depressive symptoms. These findings suggest a potential efficacy of cilostazol as a novel drug for use in augmentation therapy for depressed patients with silent cerebrovascular disorder. Evidence that vascular disease is the underlying link between depression and dementia is strong. Therefore, further studies that include follow-up of such cases are necessary.
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