Fu YJ, Liu X, Wang XY, Li X, Dai LQ, Ren WY, Zeng YM, Li ZL, Yu RQ. Abnormal volumetric brain morphometry and cerebral blood flow in adolescents with depression. World J Psychiatry 2023; 13(6): 386-396 [PMID: 37383288 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v13.i6.386]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ren-Qiang Yu, Doctor, Doctor, Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Yixueyuan Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing 400016, China. yurenqiang@hospital.cqmu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Yu-Jia Fu, Xiao Liu, Xing-Yu Wang, Wen-yu Ren, Ren-Qiang Yu, Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
Xiao Li, Lin-Qi Dai, Department of Psychiatry, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
Yong-Ming Zeng, Department of Radiology, Chongqing HongRen Yi Hospital, Chongqing 408400, China
Zhen-Lin Li, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Fu YJ and Liu X contributed to writing the original draft; Fu YJ and Liu X contributed to the work equally; Liu X, Wang XY, and Ren WY contributed to scanning magnetic resonance imaging data; Liu X analyzed the data; Li X and Dai LQ contributed to investigation; Zeng YM and Li ZL contributed to conceptualization and checking the data; Yu RQ contributed to methodology, and writing – review, and editing; All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
Supported byThe Project of Scientific Research and Innovative Experiment for College Students in Chongqing Medical University, No. 202215; and the Provincial Project of University Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program, No. 202210631015.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University Institutional Review Board, No. 20214801.
Informed consent statement: The legal guardians of all participants provided written informed consent, and all participants were provided with a comprehensive overview of the details of the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at yurenqiang@hospital.cqmu.edu.cn. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ren-Qiang Yu, Doctor, Doctor, Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Yixueyuan Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing 400016, China. yurenqiang@hospital.cqmu.edu.cn
Received: March 31, 2023 Peer-review started: March 31, 2023 First decision: May 9, 2023 Revised: May 15, 2023 Accepted: May 24, 2023 Article in press: May 24, 2023 Published online: June 19, 2023 Processing time: 80 Days and 5 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
The prevalence of depression in adolescents is high and research is scarce. Therefore, it is urgent to investigate depressed adolescents.
Research motivation
In-depth neurobiological studies investigating the pathophysiology of depression are urgently needed to develop effective treatments to help adolescents escape the symptoms of this debilitating illness. Several studies have documented the role of the cerebellum in psychiatric disorders, which is rarely mentioned in the imaging of depression, emphasizing the need for further research on the depressed brain.
Research objectives
We aimed to detect structural and functional changes in depressed adolescents. These changes may be relevant to better prevention and treatment of adolescent depression. We found that adolescents with depression exhibit various structural changes in the brain and alter cerebral blood flow in the left syphilitic spiral and right percent gyrus.
Research methods
This study recruited 34 adolescents with depression and 34 matched healthy control (HC) individuals. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) discovers structural changes in the brain; Cerebral blood flow (CBF) explore functional changes in the brain; 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) measures depression; t-test assess statistical differences.
Research results
We found that patients with adolescent depression exhibit various structural changes in the brain and altered CBF in the left pallidum and right percental gyrus. These findings may provide new insights into the pathophysiology of this disruptive psychological disorder and provide strong imaging evidence to support the hypothesis that these regions are involved in cognition and disease-related pathogenesis. Future applications of these findings have the potential to guide better prevention and treatment of depression in adolescents.
Research conclusions
New theory: Our study provides imaging evidence that supports the hypothesis that cerebellum is involved in cognition and disease-related pathogenesis. New method: We first combined VBM and CBF to examine the brains of depressed adolescents.
Research perspectives
Incorporating imaging data into the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders.
