Department of Psychology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan; Department of Medical Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Taiwan; Pervasive Artificial Intelligence Research (PAIR) Labs, Taiwan.
Department of Psychology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan; Department of Psychiatry, E-Da Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
J Affect Disord. 2021 Mar 1;282:945-952. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.01.001. Epub 2021 Jan 6.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is often comorbid with anxiety disorders or symptoms. Brain hyperactivity, frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA), and parietal alpha asymmetry (PAA) have been considered as trait markers in patients with MDD. This study investigated the electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns among patients with MDD comorbid with anxiety symptoms.
One hundred and thirty-five patients with MDD comorbid with anxiety (MDD group) and 135 healthy controls (HC group) were analyzed. The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were completed, and 19 EEG channels were measured during the resting state, depressive recall and recovery tasks, and happiness recall and recovery tasks. FAA and PAA were computed by log (F4 alpha)-log (F3 alpha) and log (P4 alpha)-log (P3 alpha).
The FAA and PAA indices between the two groups showed no significant differences; however, compared with the HC group, the MDD group had lower total delta and theta values, and higher total beta, low beta, and high beta values in the resting state. The total beta value positively correlated with the BDI-II and BAI scores in the MDD group.
Most patients had anxious MDD and taking prescriptions, antidepressants or benzodiazepine may affect EEG patterns.
Compared with HCs, patients with MDD comorbid with anxiety had a higher beta activity in the entire brain region, supporting the role of brain hyperactivity, instead of FAA or PAA, as a trait marker in these patients. A neurofeedback protocol could be developed in future based on the brain hyperactivity findings.
重度抑郁症（MDD）常与焦虑症或焦虑症状共病。大脑过度活跃、额区阿尔法不对称（FAA）和顶区阿尔法不对称（PAA）被认为是 MDD 患者的特征性标志物。本研究调查了伴有焦虑症状的 MDD 患者的脑电图（EEG）模式。
分析了 135 例伴有焦虑的 MDD 患者（MDD 组）和 135 例健康对照者（HC 组）。完成贝克抑郁量表 II （BDI-II）和贝克焦虑量表（BAI），并在静息状态、抑郁回忆和恢复任务以及快乐回忆和恢复任务期间测量 19 个脑电通道。通过 log（F4 alpha）-log（F3 alpha）和 log（P4 alpha）-log（P3 alpha）计算 FAA 和 PAA。
两组间 FAA 和 PAA 指数无显著差异；但与 HC 组相比，MDD 组在静息状态下的总 delta 和 theta 值较低，总 beta、低 beta 和高 beta 值较高。MDD 组的总 beta 值与 BDI-II 和 BAI 评分呈正相关。
大多数患者为焦虑性 MDD，服用处方药物（如抗抑郁药或苯二氮䓬类药物）可能会影响 EEG 模式。
与 HC 相比，伴有焦虑的 MDD 患者整个脑区的 beta 活动较高，支持大脑过度活跃而非 FAA 或 PAA 作为这些患者的特征性标志物的作用。未来可以根据大脑过度活跃的发现制定神经反馈方案。
