BACKGROUND Abnormalities in large-scale, structural and functional brain connectivity have been increasingly reported in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, MDD-related alterations in functional interaction between the cerebral hemispheres are still not well understood. Resting state fMRI, which reveals spontaneous neural fluctuations in blood oxygen level dependent signals,...

The first onset of major depressive disorder (MDD) most frequently occurs in young adulthood. However, few studies have examined predictors of first lifetime MDD during this high-risk period. The present study examined a broad range of demographic, clinical, and psychosocial variables as prospective predictors of first onset of MDD in a large community sample of young adults (N = 502) from the ...

OBJECTIVE The etiology of Major depressive disorder (MDD) is multifactorial but the genetic risk is an important factor. Previous studies have shown a significant interaction between serotonin and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in brain function. The serotonin transporter protein promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) and BDNF (rs6265) are two of the most studied candidate gene polymorphism...

Neuroimaging studies of major depressive disorder (MDD) have consistently observed functional and structural changes of the hippocampus (HP) and amygdale (AY). Thus, these brain regions appear to be critical elements of the pathophysiology of MDD. The HP and AY directly interact and show broad and overlapping intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) to other brain regions. Therefore, we hypothes...

White matter (WM) abnormalities have long been suspected in major depressive disorder (MDD). Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) studies have detected abnormalities in fractional anisotropy (FA) in MDD, but the available evidence has been inconsistent. We performed a quantitative meta-analysis of TBSS studies contrasting MDD patients with healthy control subjects (HCS). A total of 17 studies ...

Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) show impaired inhibitory control over negative thoughts. However, the brain mechanism underlying impaired inhibitory control in MDD has been incompletely described. The objective of this study was to examine brain function during inhibitory and error processing in a unique population of young, healthy, unmedicated MDD individuals. We hypothesized...

PURPOSE Recently, we could distinguished patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) from nonpsychiatric controls with high accuracy using a panel of five gene expression markers (ARHGAP24, HDAC5, PDGFC, PRNP, and SLC6A4) in leukocyte. In the present study, we examined whether this biological test is able to discriminate patients with MDD from those without MDD, including those with schizophr...

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most prevalent psychiatric illnesses with a heritability ranging from 40% to 50%. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs334558 on the glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK3β) gene has been identified as a genetic risk loci associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. However, results from replication studies examining the association between ...

OBJECTIVE Although a heritable contribution to risk for major depressive disorder (MDD) has been established and neural alterations in patients have been identified through neuroimaging, it is unclear which brain abnormalities are related to genetic risk. Studies on brain structure of high-risk subjects - such as individuals carrying a familial liability for the development of MDD - can provide...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the risk factors that contribute to smoking in female patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and the clinical features in depressed smokers. METHODS We examined the smoking status and clinical features in 6120 Han Chinese women with MDD (DSM-IV) between 30 and 60 years of age across China. Logistic regression was used to determine the association between clinic...