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
Review
. 2020 Mar 20;21(6):2148.
doi: 10.3390/ijms21062148.

Neuroimaging Biomarkers for Predicting Treatment Response and Recurrence of Major Depressive Disorder

Seung-Gul Kang  1 , Seo-Eun Cho  1
Affiliations
Review

Neuroimaging Biomarkers for Predicting Treatment Response and Recurrence of Major Depressive Disorder

Seung-Gul Kang et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

The acute treatment duration for major depressive disorder (MDD) is 8 weeks or more. Treatment of patients with MDD without predictors of treatment response and future recurrence presents challenges and clinical problems to patients and physicians. Recently, many neuroimaging studies have been published on biomarkers for treatment response and recurrence of MDD using various methods such as brain volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI (resting-state and affective tasks), diffusion tensor imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, near-infrared spectroscopy, and molecular imaging (i.e., positron emission tomography and single photon emission computed tomography). The results have been inconsistent, and we hypothesize that this could be due to small sample size; different study design, including eligibility criteria; and differences in the imaging and analysis techniques. In the future, we suggest a more sophisticated research design, larger sample size, and a more comprehensive integration including genetics to establish biomarkers for the prediction of treatment response and recurrence of MDD.

Keywords: biomarker; genetics; major depressive disorder; neuroimaging; recurrence; treatment response.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

    1. Undurraga J., Baldessarini R.J. Randomized, placebo-controlled trials of antidepressants for acute major depression: Thirty-year meta-analytic review. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2012;37:851–864. doi: 10.1038/npp.2011.306. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gelenberg A., Freeman M., Markowitz J., Rosenbaum J., Thase M., Trivedi M., Van Rhoads R. American Psychiatric Association practice guidelines for the treatment of patients with major depressive disorder. Am. J. Psychiatry. 2010;167:9–118.
    1. Judd L.L., Akiskal H.S., Maser J.D., Zeller P.J., Endicott J., Coryell W., Paulus M.P., Kunovac J.L., Leon A.C., Mueller T.I., et al. Major depressive disorder: A prospective study of residual subthreshold depressive symptoms as predictor of rapid relapse. J. Affect. Disord. 1998;50:97–108. - PubMed
    1. Pettit J.W., Lewinsohn P.M., Roberts R.E., Seeley J.R., Monteith L. The long-term course of depression: Development of an empirical index and identification of early adult outcomes. Psychol. Med. 2009;39:403–412. doi: 10.1017/S0033291708003851. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bland R.C., Newman S.C., Orn H. Recurrent and nonrecurrent depression: A family study. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1986;43:1085–1089. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources