Study of white matter in adolescent patients with depression by MR-diffusion tensor imaging
MAO Ning
WANG Bin
XU Cong
LIU Quan-yuan
WANG Guang-bin
Abstract：Objective To investigate the changes of the white matter in adolescent depression by using the method of tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). Methods We employed TBSS to examine WM microstructure in 35 treatment-naive adolescents with clinical depression and in 40 matched controls. By using the TBSS, we compared the difference of fractional anisotropy (FA), axial diffusivity (AD), radial diffusivity (RD) and mean diffusivity (MD) between theadolescent patients with depression and the controls. Results Our analysis revealed the abnormal WM microstructures in the clinically depressed adolescents. The whole-brain analysis revealed that patients, with lower FA values in the body of the corpus callosum (CC) (P < 0.01), had elevated RD and MD (P < 0.01), and preserved AD (P > 0.05). The FA values in the body of the corpus callosum was negatively correlated with the severity of depression (P < 0.01). Conclusions Our findings suggest that WM abnormalities are involved in the path-physiology of depression. Importantly , our findings show that these WM abnormalities present early in the course of the disorder.
Keywords：Adolescent depressionDiffusion tensor imagingWhite matter
Publication Date：2014-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：4( 3759-3762 )