Publications by authors named "JunJuan Zhu"
Background: Structural and functional neurobiological abnormalities have been observed in schizophrenia. Previous studies have concentrated on specific illness stages, obscuring relationships between functional/structural changes and disorder progression. The present study aimed to quantify structural and functional abnormalities across different clinical stages using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Prior studies have noted great variability in the plasma levels of risperidone (RIS). Plasma concentrations of RIS and its active moiety are highly variable and depend on absorption, metabolism, and other predictors of metabolic dysregulation; however, these factors are poorly understood and the association between metabolic change and change in psychopathology is uncertain.
Aim: To ascertain the characteristics of chronic schizophrenic patients treated with RIS, and to assess their relationship with plasma RIS levels.
We aimed to determine the relationship between electrophysiological signatures of error monitoring and clinical insight among outpatients with attenuated psychosis syndrome (APS) and first-episode psychosis (FEP). Error-related negativity (ERN), error positivity (Pe), and correct response negativity (CRN) were recorded during a modified flanker task for patients with FEP (n = 32), APS individuals (n = 58), and healthy controls (HC, n = 49). Clinical insight was measured using the Schedule of Assessment of Insight (SAI) and included awareness of illness (SAI-illness), relabeling of specific symptoms (SAI-symptoms), and treatment compliance (SAI-treatment).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDirect and indirect effects of error monitoring on social functioning in a cohort with high-risk and first-episode psychosis.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry
February 2024
Error monitoring plays a key role in people's adjustment to social life. This study aimed to examine the direct (DE) and indirect effects (IDE) of error monitoring, as indicated by error-related negativity (ERN), on social functioning in a clinical cohort from high-risk (APS) to first-episode psychosis (FEP). This study recruited 100 outpatients and 49 healthy controls (HC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can cause substantial damage to quality of life. Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) is a promising treatment for OCD patients with the advantages of safety and noninvasiveness.
Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate the treatment efficacy of cTBS over the bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA) for OCD patients with a single-blind, sham-controlled design.
Article Synopsis
- Despite advancements in neuroimaging research on major depressive disorder (MDD), findings remain inconsistent due to small sample sizes and varying analysis methods, prompting the launch of the Depression Imaging REsearch ConsorTium (DIRECT) and the REST-meta-MDD project, which pooled data from 2,428 functional brain images.
- The initial analyses revealed significant changes in brain connectivity and dynamics, laying the groundwork for future research and highlighting the need for more comprehensive studies across diverse populations.
- DIRECT's second phase aims to broaden the investigation of brain alterations in MDD by including various ethnic groups and other mental health disorders, while also focusing on long-term studies of treatment effects and improving neuroimaging methodologies for clinical applications.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the nucleus accumbens (NAc), which is key in reward processing and its role in major depressive disorder (MDD).
- Through meta- and mega-analysis of resting-state fMRI data, it was found that patients with recurrent MDD exhibited decreased functional connectivity within the NAc-based reward circuits.
- The research highlights that disrupted connectivity between the reward network and the default mode network (DMN) may aid in differentiating MDD patients from healthy individuals, suggesting potential biomarkers for diagnosis.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the alterations in functional homotopy architecture in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), highlighting a significant reduction in functional connectivity between homotopic brain regions.
- Using resting-state fMRI data from over 1,000 MDD patients and nearly 900 healthy controls, researchers found specific areas in the brain, like the posterior cingulate gyrus and precuneus, showed notably decreased connectivity in MDDs, with variations related to age and gender.
- The findings suggest that structural connectivity deficits in MDD may impact how information is exchanged between the brain's hemispheres, correlating with the severity of depressive symptoms and indicating potential areas for further study in treatment.
Article Synopsis
- * Researchers employed graph theory methods to analyze functional brain networks, finding that MDD patients exhibited significantly decreased global and local efficiency compared to normal controls.
- * The results highlighted specific disruptions in critical brain networks, particularly affecting recurrent MDD patients, indicating a consistent pattern of impaired efficiency in both local and global brain network communication.
Brain structural alterations in MDD patients with gastrointestinal symptoms: Evidence from the REST-meta-MDD project.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry
December 2021
Article Synopsis
- This study aims to investigate the neural underpinnings of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) by examining changes in brain structure, specifically focusing on gray matter volume (GMV) and density (GMD).* -
- Researchers divided participants into three groups: MDD patients with GI symptoms, MDD patients without GI symptoms, and healthy controls, analyzing MRI scans from a total of 930 individuals and using tools like the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale to assess symptoms.* -
- Results showed that patients with GI symptoms had higher depression scores and significant differences in brain structure compared to the other groups, particularly in regions like the superior temporal gyrus and caudate nucleus, suggesting a link between
Negative symptoms are the major challenge in clinical management of schizophrenia. Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) has been suggested to be highly involved in the mechanisms of negative symptoms of schizophrenia. However, the effect of repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) over DMPFC has not yet been well studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The study investigates brain functional connectivity asymmetry in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) using resting-state fMRI data from 753 patients compared to 451 healthy controls.
- Results show that MDD patients exhibited increased asymmetry scores, indicating decreased specialization in various brain networks, particularly in the default mode, control, and attention networks, influenced by demographic and clinical variables.
- The findings suggest that MDD disrupts efficient brain information processing, providing new insights into the pathophysiology of depression that could inform future research.
Background: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an effective adjuvant treatment for depression. Many patients with depression have comorbid anxiety symptoms. However, previous rTMS studies have focused on patients with depression, and often excluded comorbid anxiety.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is now an established, safe, and effective treatment for adults with depression. However, specific research in rTMS for use in elderly patients with acute depression is scarce.
Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of add-on rTMS in a clinical sample of older adults experiencing an acute phase of depression.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates how dynamic functional connectivity (FC) differs in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) compared to healthy controls, using a large dataset from the REST-meta-MDD consortium.
- Results revealed that MDD patients exhibited higher temporal variability in brain connectivity, lower temporal clustering, and increased efficiency in communication between brain networks, with specific local changes observed in areas like the default-mode network and sensorimotor regions.
- These findings indicate that irregularities in dynamic FC may contribute to the underlying mechanisms of MDD, with potential correlations between brain connectivity measures and the severity of depression symptoms.
Background: Pharmacological and conventional non-pharmacological treatments are only moderately effective in treating generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). Recently, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has attracted interest because of its potential therapeutic value.
Aim: To investigate the efficacy and safety of rTMS treatment for GAD.
Article Synopsis
- Major depressive disorder (MDD) is prevalent and disabling, with unclear underlying brain mechanisms; the REST-meta-MDD Project aims to address these knowledge gaps using a large data set.
- The project involved 25 research groups in China analyzing resting-state fMRI data from 1,300 MDD patients and 1,128 normal controls, finding decreased connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) among recurrent MDD patients.
- The study highlights the importance of DMN connectivity in MDD, revealing a relationship between decreased connectivity, medication usage, and symptom severity, while encouraging further research on the impact of these findings on treatment response.
Background: The impairment of facial expression recognition has become a biomarker for early identification of first-episode schizophrenia, and this kind of research is increasing.
Aims: To explore the differences in brain area activation using different degrees of disgusted facial expression recognition in antipsychotic-naïve patients with first-episode schizophrenia and healthy controls.
Methods: In this study, facial expression recognition tests were performed on 30 first-episode, antipsychotic-naïve patients with schizophrenia (treatment group) and 30 healthy subjects (control group) with matched age, educational attainment and gender.
Background: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is considered as an effective treatment for adults with major depressive disorder. However, it remains unknown whether rTMS has comparable or better efficacy in adolescents.
Objective: The current naturalistic study aimed to investigate the efficacy and clinical outcome of add-on rTMS in a large sample of adolescent patients compared to adult patients.
Meta-analysis of the Efficacy and Safety of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) in the Treatment of Depression.
Shanghai Arch Psychiatry
December 2017
Background: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a new type of physiotherapy technology that has been widely used in the research of depression. Although many clinical trials have found that compared to the placebo interventions, rTMS has a significant effect on the improvement of depressive symptoms, the outcomes remain inconsistent due to differences in rTMS treatment frequency, parameter settings, and site for stimulation.
Aims: This study systematically evaluated the safety and efficacy of rTMS combined with antidepressants for the treatment of depression in Chinese and English randomized, double-blind and sham controlled trials and explored the possible related factors affecting the efficacy and safety.