Abnormal neural activities in first-episode, treatment-naïve, short-illness-duration, and treatment-response patients with major depressive disorder: a resting-state fMRI study.

BACKGROUND Abnormality of limbic-cortical networks was postulated in depression. Using a regional homogeneity (ReHo) approach, we explored the regional homogeneity (ReHo) of the brain regions in patients with first-episode, treatment-naïve, short-illness-duration, and treatment-response depression in resting state to test the abnormality hypothesis of limbic-cortical networks in major depressive disorder (MDD). METHODS Seventeen patients with treatment-response MDD and 17 gender-, age-, and education-matched healthy subjects participated in the resting-state fMRI scans. RESULTS CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggested the abnormality of limbic-cortical networks in first-episode, treatment-naïve, short-illness-duration, and treatment-response MDD patients, and added an expanding literature to the abnormality hypothesis of limbic-cortical networks in MDD.