Frontal regional homogeneity increased and temporal regional homogeneity decreased after remission of first-episode drug-naïve major depressive disorder with panic disorder patients under duloxetine therapy for 6 weeks.

OBJECTIVE

We designed this study to investigate the changes of regional homogeneity (ReHo) after a 6-week duloxetine therapy in first-episode drug-naïve major depressive disorder with panic disorder (FEMDDPD) patients.

METHOD

3T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning and ReHo functional MRI analysis were performed on 15 patients (male: 5; female: 10; age: 35.87±9.59 years old) at baseline and remitted status (sixth week) compared with 15 healthy control subjects (male: 4; female: 11; age: 34.30±9.87 years old) which were scanned twice within 6 weeks. The ReHo was analyzed by the REST toolbox (resting-state functional MRI data analysis toolbox). The ReHos of different time-points were compared by using paired t test function of REST.

RESULTS

ReHo increased in right superior frontal cortex, right medial frontal cortex and decreased in right superior temporal cortex (uncorrected p<0.00005, cluster threshold>20, surface connected theory) after remission of symptoms in these FEMDDPD patients within 6 weeks (improvements of clinician rating and self rating scale scores; post-hoc corrected p<0.001). No significant changes of ReHo were observed in the controls within 6 weeks (uncorrected p<0.1, no cluster threshold setting, surface connected theory). The changes of ReHo value were mildly correlated with improvements of clinical rating scales with age, gender, depression and anxiety severity as covariates.

CONCLUSION

Our study suggested that differential modulations inside the default mode network probably were associated with remission of FEMDDPD symptoms after duloxetine therapy.