Objective: To identify data-driven subgroups in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in order to elucidate underlying neural correlates and determine if these subgroups have utility in predicting response to antidepressant versus placebo.

Methods: Using 27 clinical measures at baseline of Establishing Moderators and Biosignatures of Antidepressant Response for Clinical Care for Depression (EMBARC) study, participants with MDD (n=244) were sub grouped using principal component (PC) analysis. Baseline-to-week-8 changes in depression severity with sertraline versus placebo were compared in these subgroups. Resting-state functional connectivity of these subgroups were compared to those of healthy controls (n=38).

Results: Eight subgroups were identified from four PCs: (PC1) severity of depression-associated symptoms, (PC2) sub-threshold mania and anhedonia, (PC3) childhood trauma, medical comorbidities, and sexual dysfunction, and (PC4) personality traits of openness and agreeableness. Participants with high childhood trauma experienced greater improvement with sertraline (Cohen's d=0.87), whereas those with either higher levels of subthreshold hypomanic symptoms (Cohen's d=0.67) or with lower levels of agreeableness and openness experienced greater improvement with placebo (Cohen's d=0.71). Participants with high childhood trauma had greater connectivity between salience and dorsal attention networks, whereas those with higher levels of subthreshold hypomanic symptoms and lower levels of agreeableness and openness had greater connectivity within limbic network and that of visual network with hippocampus and dorsal attention network.

Conclusion: Assessing history of childhood trauma, presence of subthreshold hypomanic symptoms and personality traits may help to identify subgroups of patients with MDD who respond differentially to sertraline or placebo and have distinct neural signatures.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.12.102DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

childhood trauma
16
subthreshold hypomanic
12
hypomanic symptoms
12
versus placebo
8
placebo distinct
8
distinct neural
8
neural signatures
8
data-driven subgroups
8
subgroups patients
8
major depressive
8

Similar Publications

Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how childhood trauma affects brain connectivity in patients experiencing their first episode of psychosis compared to healthy controls.
  • Higher scores of sexual abuse and emotional neglect from childhood trauma were linked to increased functional connectivity between specific brain regions (like the amygdala and prefrontal cortex) in these patients.
  • The findings suggest that different types of childhood trauma have distinct long-term effects on brain function, highlighting the complex relationship between trauma and psychosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Functional seizures (FS) are a highly debilitating symptom of functional neurological disorder (FND). FS requires a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment because the patient's initial presentation is to neurology, emergency medicine, or primary care and treatment consists of psychotherapy. People with FS commonly experience severe childhood trauma, particularly sexual trauma.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Promoting child well-being and development requires a multidimensional approach, including the right to adequate food practices. Socially vulnerable children are more exposed to adverse experiences, such as inadequate food consumption due to poverty. In this context, home-visiting programs are an important strategy for nutritional and health care education to provide relevant guidelines.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The associations between paternal postpartum depressive symptoms and testosterone and cortisol levels in hair over the first two years postpartum.

Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry

January 2025

Department of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany. Electronic address:

Background: After the birth of a child, also fathers may develop postpartum depression. Altered steroid hormone concentrations are discussed as a possible underlying mechanism, as these have been associated with depressive symptoms in previous studies outside the postpartum period. While higher paternal testosterone levels have been found to protect against paternal postpartum depressive symptoms (PPDS), an association between higher cortisol levels and PPDS has been seen in postpartum mothers, with no comparable studies available on fathers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Childhood adversity is robustly associated with mental ill-health. Yet questions remain about how different ways of conceptualising adversity relate to psychiatric diagnoses and service activity. This research aims to examine associations between typological and cumulative conceptualisations of adversity, and psychiatric diagnosis and service activity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!