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Frontiers of Medicine >> 2021, Volume 15, Issue 4 doi: 10.1007/s11684-020-0798-1

Translational application of neuroimaging in major depressive disorder: a review of psychoradiological studies

. Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.. Research Unit of Psychoradiology. Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China.. Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 610041, China.. Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.. The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China

Received: 2020-10-29 Accepted: 2021-02-03 Available online: 2021-02-03

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Abstract

Major depressive disorder (MDD) causes great decrements in health and quality of life with increments in healthcare costs, but the causes and pathogenesis of depression remain largely unknown, which greatly prevent its early detection and effective treatment. With the advancement of neuroimaging approaches, numerous functional and structural alterations in the brain have been detected in MDD and more recently attempts have been made to apply these findings to clinical practice. In this review, we provide an updated summary of the progress in translational application of psychoradiological findings in MDD with a specified focus on potential clinical usage. The foreseeable clinical applications for different MRI modalities were introduced according to their role in disorder classification, subtyping, and prediction. While evidence of cerebral structural and functional changes associated with MDD classification and subtyping was heterogeneous and/or sparse, the ACC and hippocampus have been consistently suggested to be important biomarkers in predicting treatment selection and treatment response. These findings underlined the potential utility of brain biomarkers for clinical practice.

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