Subthreshold depression may exist on a spectrum with major depressive disorder: Evidence from gray matter volume and morphological brain network

Abstract

Background: Subthreshold depression (StD) is a prevalent condition that may increase the risk of incident major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the relationship between StD and MDD remains unclear.

Methods: A total of 153 adult subjects, including 53 drug-naive MDD, 50 StD and 50 healthy control (HC) subjects, underwent a T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scan, and the gray matter volume (GMV) alterations among the three groups were quantitatively analyzed using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Then, to capture the whole-brain connectivity characteristics, we constructed morphological brain networks (MBN) based on the similarity among brain regions of individual VBM images and compared the network connection strengths among the three groups.

Results: The StD and MDD subjects had similar patterns of GMV reductions in the orbitofrontal cortex and left temporal gyrus, although the magnitude of the reductions was smaller in StD subjects. Moreover, a total of 21 morphological connections were significantly different among the three groups. For the majority of the different connections (15/21), the connection strength of the StD group took an intermediate position between that of the MDD and HC groups.

Limitations: There is still a lack of a consistent definition of StD, and the age range of the subjects in this study was wide. Meanwhile the mechanisms and biological significance of the MBN remains to be clarified.

Conclusions: These results may support the hypothesis that depression is better expressed as a spectrum and that StD exists on a spectrum with MDD.

Keywords: Depressive spectrum; Magnetic resonance imaging; Major depressive disorder; Morphological brain networks; Subthreshold depression; Voxel-based morphometry.