Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Feb 29;18(1):58-66.
doi: 10.9758/cpn.2020.18.1.58.

Frontal Alpha Asymmetry Moderated by Suicidal Ideation in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder: A Comparison with Healthy Individuals

Sang-Choong Roh  1 , Ji Sun Kim  2 , Sungkean Kim  1   3 , Yourim Kim  1 , Seung-Hwan Lee  1   4
Affiliations

Frontal Alpha Asymmetry Moderated by Suicidal Ideation in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder: A Comparison with Healthy Individuals

Sang-Choong Roh et al. Clin Psychopharmacol Neurosci. .

Abstract

Objective: Frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) of electroencephalography (EEG) has been studied to differentiate patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) from healthy controls (HC). However, inconsistent results have been obtained thus far. Suicidal ideation (SI) has been known to alter frontal lobe activity, and could be an important covariate in FAA studies. This study aimed to explore the influence of FAA on the relationship among MDD patients with SI and without SI, and HC.

Methods: Sixty-seven patients with MDD (44 without and 23 with SI) and 60 HCs were recruited. Resting state EEG was recorded with their eyes open, and FAA as a lateralized index of alpha power was calculated in the frontal brain region. Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety and Depression scores were estimated.

Results: FAA was higher (increased alpha power in the left frontal region) in the MDD group than in the HC group. The FAA was lower (reduced alpha power in the left frontal region) in MDD patients with SI than in MDD patients without SI. The severity of depression and anxiety symptoms were significantly correlated with FAA only in MDD patients with SI. SI moderated the effects of depressive symptom on FAA in the MDD group.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that SI is a clinically important moderator of frontal alpha asymmetry in patients with MDD.

Keywords: Alpha asymmetry; Frontal alpha asymmetry; Major depressive disorder; Quantitative electroencephalography.; Suicidal ideation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Spearman’s correlations between frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) and symptom severity score in patients with major depressive disorder with suicidal ideation (n = 23). HAM-A, Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety; HAM-D, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
(A) Moderation effect of suicidal ideation (SI) on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) and the frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) at F7–F8. (B) Severe depressive symptom causes reduced FAA (F7–F8), which reflects reduced alpha power in the left frontal region. This phenomenon was only significant in in patients with major depressive disorder with suicidal ideation (n = 23).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alonso J, Angermeyer MC, Bernert S, Bruffaerts R, Brugha TS, Bryson H, et al. Prevalence of mental disorders in Europe: results from the European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD) project. Acta Psychiatr Scand Suppl. 2004;(420):21–27. - PubMed
    1. Kessler RC, Berglund P, Demler O, Jin R, Merikangas KR, Walters EE. Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62:593–602. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Murray CJ, Lopez AD. Alternative projections of mortality and disability by cause 1990–2020: Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet. 1997;349:1498–1504. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(96)07492-2. - DOI - PubMed
    1. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV-TR. 4th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2000. 10th revision.
    1. Iosifescu DV, Greenwald S, Devlin P, Perlis RH, Denninger JW, Alpert JE, et al. Pretreatment frontal EEG and changes in suicidal ideation during SSRI treatment in major depressive disorder. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2008;117:271–276. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2008.01156.x. - DOI - PubMed