BACKGROUND

Neuroimaging studies have consistently reported similar brain structural abnormalities across different psychiatric disorders. Yet, the extent and regional distribution of shared morphometric abnormalities between disorders remains unknown.

METHODS

Here, we conducted a cross-disorder analysis of brain structural abnormalities in 6 psychiatric disorders based on effect size estimates for cortical thickness and subcortical volume differences between healthy control subjects and psychiatric patients from 11 mega- and meta-analyses from the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics Through Meta Analysis) consortium. Correlational and exploratory factor analyses were used to quantify the relative overlap in brain structural effect sizes between disorders and to identify brain regions with disorder-specific abnormalities.

RESULTS

Brain structural abnormalities in major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder were highly correlated (r = .443 to r = .782), and one shared latent underlying factor explained between 42.3% and 88.7% of the brain structural variance of each disorder. The observed shared morphometric signature of these disorders showed little similarity with brain structural patterns related to physiological aging. In contrast, patterns of brain structural abnormalities independent of all other disorders were observed in both attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder. Brain regions showing high proportions of independent variance were identified for each disorder to locate disorder-specific morphometric abnormalities.

CONCLUSIONS

Taken together, these results offer novel insights into transdiagnostic as well as disorder-specific brain structural abnormalities across 6 major psychiatric disorders. Limitations comprise the uncertain contribution of risk factors, comorbidities, and medication effects to the observed pattern of results that should be clarified by future research.