Department of Psychiatry, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650032, China.
Department of Medical Imaging, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan, 650032, China.
Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2023 Sep;334:111683. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2023.111683. Epub 2023 Jul 14.
Melancholic depression (MD) is a more severe type of major depressive disorder (MDD) with a core feature of anhedonia. However, its pathophysiology remains unclear. The current study aims to investigate whether there is a significant difference in cortical thickness (CT) that can be used to differentiate MD patients from non-melancholic depression (NMD) patients. We recruited 137 first-episode drug-naive MDD patients and 75 healthy controls (HCs) for structural magnetic resonance imaging, analyzed using the Surface-based morphometry approach. Meanwhile, the MDD patients were divided into the MD and NMD subgroups according to their scores on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. No significant CT differences among the three groups were found. We also did not find significant CT changes between the NMD and the HCs groups or between the MD and NMD groups. However, the CT of the left postcentral gyrus and right precuneus among MD patients were larger than HCs. Moreover, the CT of the left postcentral gyrus and right precuneus were not correlated with the severity of the disease and illness duration. The findings suggest that the CT alterations of the left postcentral gyrus and the right precuneus are distinct pathological mechanisms for MD.
单相抑郁障碍（MD）是一种更严重的重性抑郁障碍（MDD），其核心特征是快感缺失。然而，其病理生理学仍不清楚。本研究旨在探讨皮质厚度（CT）是否存在显著差异，可用于区分 MD 患者与非单相抑郁障碍（NMD）患者。我们招募了 137 名首次发作的未经药物治疗的 MDD 患者和 75 名健康对照者（HCs）进行结构磁共振成像，使用基于表面的形态计量学方法进行分析。同时，根据蒙哥马利-阿斯伯格抑郁评定量表和汉密尔顿抑郁评定量表的评分，将 MDD 患者分为 MD 和 NMD 亚组。三组之间的 CT 无显著差异。我们还没有发现 NMD 和 HCs 组之间或 MD 和 NMD 组之间的 CT 变化。然而，MD 患者的左侧中央后回和右侧楔前叶的 CT 大于 HCs。此外，左侧中央后回和右侧楔前叶的 CT 与疾病的严重程度和病程无关。这些发现表明，左侧中央后回和右侧楔前叶的 CT 改变是 MD 的独特病理机制。
