IMPORTANCE: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is one of the most effective treatments for severe depression. However, biomarkers that accurately predict a response to ECT remain unidentified.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether certain factors identified by structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques are able to predict ECT response.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: In this nonrandomized prospective study, gray matter structure was assessed twice at approximately 6 weeks apart ...

OBJECTIVE: Although exposure-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment option for panic disorder with agoraphobia, the neural substrates of treatment response remain unknown. Evidence suggests that panic disorder with agoraphobia is characterized by dysfunctional safety signal processing. Using fear conditioning as a neurofunctional probe, the authors investigated neural baseline characteristics and neuroplastic changes after CBT that were associated with ...

The neuro-anatomical substrates of major depressive disorder (MDD) are still not well understood, despite many neuroimaging studies over the past few decades. Here we present the largest ever worldwide study by the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis) Major Depressive Disorder Working Group on cortical structural alterations in MDD. Structural T1-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from 2148 MDD patients and 7957 healthy controls were analysed ...

Recently, several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on bipolar disorder (BPD) suggested novel risk genes. However, only few of them were followed up and further, the specificity of these genes is even more elusive. To address these issues, we genotyped SNPs in ANK3, CACNA1C, CMTM8, DGKH, EGFR, and NPAS3, which were significantly associated with BPD in previous GWAS, in a sample of 380 BPD patients. Replicated SNPs were then followed up in patients suffering from unipolar depression ...

OBJECTIVE: Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a first-line treatment for panic disorder with agoraphobia (PD/AG). Nevertheless, an understanding of its mechanisms and particularly the role of therapist-guided exposure is lacking. This study was aimed to evaluate whether therapist-guided exposure in situ is associated with more pervasive and long-lasting effects than therapist-prescribed exposure in situ.

METHOD: A multicenter randomized controlled trial, in which 369 PD/AG patients ...

Recent observations indicate that sex and level of steroid hormones may influence cortical networks associated with specific cognitive functions, in particular visuo-spatial abilities. The present study probed the influence of sex, menstrual cycle, and sex steroid hormones on 3D mental rotation and brain function using 3-T fMRI. Twelve healthy women and 12 men were investigated. Menstrual cycle and hormone levels were assessed. The early follicular and midluteal phase of the menstrual ...

BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a disabling mood disorder, and despite a known heritable component, a large meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies revealed no replicable genetic risk variants. Given prior evidence of heterogeneity by age at onset in MDD, we tested whether genome-wide significant risk variants for MDD could be identified in cases subdivided by age at onset.

METHODS: Discovery case-control genome-wide association studies were performed where cases ...

BACKGROUND: Childhood maltreatment represents a strong risk factor for the development of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in later life. In the present study, we investigated the neurobiological underpinnings of this association. Since both depression and PTSD have been associated with increased amygdala responsiveness to negative stimuli as well as reduced hippocampal gray matter volume, we speculated that childhood maltreatment results in similar functional and ...

IMPORTANCE: The structural abnormalities in the brain that accurately differentiate unipolar depression (UD) and bipolar depression (BD) remain unidentified.

OBJECTIVES: First, to investigate and compare morphometric changes in UD and BD, and to replicate the findings at 2 independent neuroimaging sites; second, to differentiate UD and BD using multivariate pattern classification techniques.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: In a 2-center cross-sectional study, structural gray matter ...

BACKGROUND: Panic disorder with agoraphobia is characterized by panic attacks and anxiety in situations where escape might be difficult. However, neuroimaging studies specifically focusing on agoraphobia are rare. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with disorder-specific stimuli to investigate the neural substrates of agoraphobia.

METHOD: We compared the neural activations of 72 patients suffering from panic disorder with agoraphobia with 72 matched healthy control ...

BACKGROUND: In recent years, schizophrenia has increasingly been recognized as a neurocognitive disorder, which has led to a growing literature on cognitive rehabilitation, and suggested several potential enhancements to cognitive function. For instance, it has been shown that executive functioning deficits as measured by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) can be modified in a subgroup of schizophrenic patients. The neurobiological basis of cognitive remediation has not been ...

BACKGROUND: Cognitive theories of depression predict mood-congruent negative biases already at automatic stages of processing, although several behavioral studies seem to contradict this notion. That is, depression should potentiate emotional reactivity to negative emotional cues, whereas it should reduce reactivity in response to positive emotional stimuli. Assessing neurobiological substrates of automatic emotion processing might be a more sensitive challenge for automatic negative ...

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and affective disorders are both very prevalent in the general population. However, it is unclear on a population level if the prevalence of different subtypes of affective disorders like unipolar major depression or dysthymia is different in individuals with specific CVDs.

METHODS: In 4,181 participants of the general population, lifetime prevalences for affective disorders were assessed through the Composite International Diagnostic Interview ...

BACKGROUND: Fear conditioning involves the amygdala as the main neural structure for learning fear responses whereas fear extinction mainly activates the inhibitory prefrontal cortex (PFC). In this study we investigated whether individual differences in trait anxiety affect amygdala and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activation during fear conditioning and extinction.

METHOD: Thirty-two healthy subjects were investigated by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 3 T ...

Importance: More than half of all patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) experience a relapse within 2 years after recovery. It is unclear how relapse affects brain morphologic features during the course of MDD.

Objective: To use structural magnetic resonance imaging to identify morphologic brain changes associated with relapse in MDD.

Design, Setting, and Participants: In this longitudinal case-control study, patients with acute MDD at baseline and healthy controls were recruited ...