CLINICAL NOTE

Regional cerebral hypoperfusion is found in depression. Favorable therapeutic effect of antidepressant drugs usually leads to flow normalization. In our patients, cerebral blood flow correlated well with clinical findings. Clinical and scintigraphic improvement was observed after 3 weeks of therapy in all patients. On follow up after 6 months, psychiatric and scintigraphic normalization was noted in all but one patient who committed suicide shortly after the last examination. In the described case, a tendency toward baseline clinical and scintigraphic findings was observed after initial partial response to medication. Noncompliance to medication was suspected and confirmed after her suicide.