title: High-field magnetic resonance imaging of suicidality in patients with major depressive disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Suicide is a major social and public health problem, but its neurobiology in major depressive disorder is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to use magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging to characterize abnormalities of white matter integrity in major depressive disorder patients with and without a history of suicide attempts.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 52 patients with major depressive disorder, with (N=16) and without (N=36) a history of suicide attempts, and 52 healthy comparison subjects matched for age, gender, education, and ethnicity. Diffusion tensor imaging in a 3.0 Tesla magnetic resonance scanner was performed. Whole-brain voxel-based analysis was used to compare fractional anisotropy across the three groups and analyze the correlation with symptom severity. A region-of-interest analysis was applied to the bilateral hippocampus, thalamus, and lentiform nucleus
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fractional anisotropy was decreased in the left anterior limb of the internal capsule in suicide attempters relative to both nonattempters and healthy comparison subjects, in the right frontal lobe relative to comparison subjects only, and in the right lentiform nucleus relative to nonattempters only. There was no significant correlation with symptom severity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Decreased fractional anisotropy in the left anterior limb of the internal capsule appears to characterize patients with major depressive disorder who have a history of attempting suicide. Longitudinal studies are required to validate this as a potential marker that may inform the development of strategies for reducing suicide.
authors.affiliation: Huaxi Magnetic Resonance Research Center, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Zhiyun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Xiaoqi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Qizhu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Tijiang
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Su
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lui
authors.forename: Junran
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Nabin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Amatya
authors.forename: Weihong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kuang
authors.forename: Raymond C K
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Graham J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Kemp
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mechelli
authors.forename: Qiyong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Gong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016880:Anisotropy; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002681:China; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D020772:Internal Capsule / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology*; D013788:Thalamus / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D055815:Young Adult