Guest Editor(s)

• Prof. Kurt A. Jellinger

  Institute of Clinical Neurobiology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.

  Website | E-mail

Special Issue Introduction

Vascular depression (VaDep) is regarded as a subtype of late-live depression (LLD) characterized by a distinct clinical presentation (depressive.executive syndrome, and greater risk to develop cognitive impairment) and is associated with cerebrovasclar damage, in particular microvascular and subcortical white matter lesions. Although depressive symptoms in the elderly are common (estimated at 12-50% of Major Depressive Disorders/MDD/,) the concept of VaDep, introduced by GS Alexopoulos in 1997, is still not widely accepted and is not yet included in current psychiatric manuals as DSM-V, a fact that still limits is use in clinicl settings. The multifold pathogenesis of VaDep needs further elucudation. In 2016, an international group of experts has presented a Consensus report on the clinical features, brain lesions detected by neuroimaging methods and neuropathology, current evidence of the pathobiology and treatment options of VaDep including acombination of vasoactive drugs and antidepressants) (Aizenstein et al., MBC Med (2016) 14:161). The present special issue of VP is intended to give an up-to-date overview of the clinical presenation of VaDep, possible interrelations between cerebrovascular disease and depressive symptoms in older adults, pathomechanisms, molecular pathobiology, and risk factors of VaDep, modern neuroimaging and biomarker studies, VaDep and cognitive impairment, and currently available methodes for prevention and successful treatment of this disorder.

The special issue should/could include the following items:
- Introduction (background)
- Clinical features of VaDep
- Epidemiology of VaDep
- Risk factors of VaDep
- Pathomechnaisms linking VaDep and CVD
- Post-stroke depression
- VaDep and cognitive impairment
- Neuroimaging of VaDep
- Pathophysiology/pathomechanisms of VaDem
- Neuropathology and clinico-pathological correlations of VaDep
- Critics of the concept of VaDep
- Prevention and treatment options
- Conclusions and further outlook (directions).

Key Words: Late-life depression; cerebrovascular lesions; neuroimaging; key symptoms of vascular depression; pathomechanisms; vascular depression and cognition; treatment options

Submission Deadline

15 Jul 2021

Submission Information

Articles of special issue are free of charge for article processing.
For Author Instructions, please refer to http://vpjournal.net/pages/view/author_instructions
For Online Submission, please login at https://oaemesas.com/VP/?IssueId=556
Submission Deadline: 15 Jul 2021
Contacts: Alisa Wang, Assistant Editor, Alisa@vpjournal.net