A number of studies indicate that prolonged, major depression is associated with a selective
loss of hippocampal volume that persists long after the depression has resolved. This review
is prompted by two ideas. The first is that overt neuron loss may be a contributing factor to
the decrease in hippocampal volume. As such, the first half of this article reviews current
knowledge about how hippocampal neurons die during insults, focusing on issues related to
the trafficking of glutamate and calcium, glutamate receptor subtypes, oxygen radical�…