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
. 2023:38:103388.
doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2023.103388. Epub 2023 Mar 29.

Transdiagnostic structural neuroimaging features in depression and psychosis: A systematic review

Paris Alexandros Lalousis  1 , Stephen Wood  2 , Renate Reniers  3 , Lianne Schmaal  4 , Hannah Azam  5 , Antonella Mazziota  5 , Hasson Saeed  5 , Charlotte Wragg  5 , Rachel Upthegrove  3
Affiliations

Transdiagnostic structural neuroimaging features in depression and psychosis: A systematic review

Paris Alexandros Lalousis et al. Neuroimage Clin. 2023.

Abstract

Background: Previous research suggests that there may be similarities in structural brain changes seen in patients with depression and psychosis compared to healthy controls. However, there is yet no systematic review collating studies comparing structural brain changes in depression and psychosis. Establishing shared and specific neuroanatomical features could aid the investigation of underlying biological processes.

Aims: To identify structural neuroimaging similarities and differences between patients with depression and psychosis.

Method: We searched PubMed, PsychInfo, Embase, NICE Evidence, Medline and the Cochrane Library were searched from inception to 30/06/2021 using relevant subject headings (controlled vocabularies) and search syntax. Papers were assessed for quality using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale.

Results: Five-hundred and twenty papers were retrieved, seven met inclusion criteria. In narrative collation of results, grey matter volume (GMV) reductions were found in the medial frontal gyrus (MFG), hippocampus and left-sided posterior subgenual prefrontal cortex in both psychosis and depression. GMV reductions affected more brain regions in psychosis, including in the insula and thalamus. White matter volume (WMV) decline was found in both depression and psychosis. Reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) was more commonly seen in depression.

Conclusions: Our results suggest potential transdiagnostic patterns of GMV and WMV reductions in areas including the MFG, hippocampus, and left-sided posterior subgenual prefrontal cortex. These could be investigated as a future biomarker of transdiagnostic signature across mental illnesses. However, due to the limited number and poor quality of studies future research in large samples and harmonised imaging data is first needed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
PRISMA flow diagram documenting the study selection process including the identification, screening, eligibility and included studies stages.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Arnold, S. et al. (2014) “Hippocampal Volume Is Reduced in Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder But Not in Psychotic Bipolar I Disorder Demonstrated by Both Manual Tracing and Automated Parcellation (FreeSurfer)”, Schizophrenia Bulletin, 41(1), pp. 233-249. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arnone, D. et al. (2012) “Magnetic resonance imaging studies in unipolar depression: Systematic review and meta-regression analyses”, European Neuropsychopharmacology, 22(1), pp. 1-16. doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2011.05.003. - PubMed
    1. Bero L. Evaluating systematic reviews and meta-analyses. J. Law Policy. 2006;14(2) https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/jlp/vol14/iss2/4
    1. Birchwood M., Iqbal Z., Upthegrove R. Psychological pathways to depression in schizophrenia: studies in acute psychosis, post psychotic depression and auditory hallucinations. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2005;255:202–212. doi: 10.1007/s00406-005-0588-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chuang J.-Y., Murray G.K., Metastasio A., Segarra N., Tait R., Spencer J., Ziauddeen H., Dudas R.B., Fletcher P.C., Suckling J. Brain structural signatures of negative symptoms in depression and schizophrenia. Front. Psych. 2014;5 doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00116. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Further reading

    1. An der Heiden W., Leber A., Häfner H. Negative symptoms and their association with depressive symptoms in the long-term course of schizophrenia. Eur. Arch. Psychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 2016;266(5):387–396. - PubMed
    1. Berger G.E., Bartholomeusz C.F., Wood S.J., Ang A., Phillips L.J., Proffitt T., Brewer W.J., Smith D.J., Nelson B., Lin A., Borgwardt S., Velakoulis D., Yung A.R., McGorry P.D., Pantelis C. Ventricular volumes across stages of schizophrenia and other psychoses. Aust. N. Z. J. Psychiatry. 2017;51(10):1041–1051. - PubMed
    1. Carrà G., Crocamo C., Bartoli F., Angermeyer M., Brugha T., Toumi M., Bebbington P. The mediating role of depression in pathways linking positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia. A longitudinal analysis using latent variable structural equation modelling. Psychol. Med. 2019:1–9. doi: 10.1017/S0033291719000321. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fu C., Steiner H., Costafreda S. Predictive neural biomarkers of clinical response in depression: a meta-analysis of functional and structural neuroimaging studies of pharmacological and psychological therapies. Neurobiol. Dis. 2013;52:75–83. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2012.05.008. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fusar-Poli, P. et al. (2014) “Treatments of Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia: Meta-Analysis of 168 Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trials”, Schizophrenia Bulletin, 41(4), pp. 892–899. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbu170. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms