Abstract
Identifying biosignatures to assess the probability of response to an antidepressant for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) is critically needed. Functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI) offers the promise to provide such a measure. Previous work with fcMRI demonstrated that the correlation in signal from one region to another is a measure of functional connectivity. In this pilot work, a baseline non-task fcMRI was acquired in 14 adults with MDD who were free of all medications. Participants were then treated for 8 weeks with an antidepressant and then clinically re-evaluated. Probabilistic anatomic regions of interest (ROI) were defined for 16 brain regions (eight for each hemisphere) previously identified as being important in mood disorders. These ROIs were used to determine mean time courses for each individual's baseline non-task fcMRI. The correlations in time courses between 16 brain regions were calculated. These calculated correlations were considered to signify measures of functional connectivity. The degree of connectivity for each participant was correlated with treatment outcome. Among 13 participants with 8 weeks follow-up data, connectivity measures in several regions, especially the subcallosal cortex, were highly correlated with treatment outcome. These connectivity measures could provide a means to evaluate how likely a patient is to respond to an antidepressant treatment. Further work using larger samples is required to confirm these findings and to assess if measures of functional connectivity can be used to predict differential outcomes between antidepressant treatments.
Highlights
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious brain syndrome that causes considerable morbidity and mortality
This study demonstrates the potential to use functional connectivity measures derived from non-task Functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI) scans in order to provide critically needed assistance to clinicians
The connectivity of both subcallosal cortices to the left anterior cingulate gyrus were strongly correlated with treatment outcome
Summary
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious brain syndrome that causes considerable morbidity and mortality. Measures of regional brain connectivity have been used in several studies to investigate MDD, to the best of our knowledge, brain connectivity measures that were determined from non-task (resting) fcMRI to predict treatment outcome for an individual have not been reported. Connectivity and treatment outcome MDD pressure of an individual patient is measured in a group of patients to determine if the biomarker has clinical significance). In this initial study, connectivity values between brain regions were measured by determining the correlation between time courses of the various brain regions for each individual. These functional connectivity measures of the various brain regions were assessed to determine the most robust markers associated with treatment outcome
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