White matter abnormalities in major depressive disorder with melancholic and atypical features: A diffusion tensor imaging study.
OBJECTIVE
The DSM-IV recognizes some subtypes of major depressive disorder (MDD). It is known that the effectiveness of antidepressants differs among the MDD subtypes, and thus the differentiation of the subtypes is important. However, little is known as to structural brain changes in MDD with atypical features (aMDD) in comparison with MDD with melancholic features (mMDD), which prompted us to examine possible differences in white matter integrity assessed with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) between these two subtypes.


METHODS
Subjects were 21 patients with mMDD, 24 with aMDD, and 37 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers whose DTI data were obtained by 1.5 tesla magnetic resonance imaging. We compared fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity value derived from DTI data on a voxel-by-voxel basis among the two diagnostic groups and healthy subjects.


RESULTS
There were significant decreases of fractional anisotropy and increases of mean diffusivity in patients with MDD compared with healthy subjects in the corpus callosum, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and left superior longitudinal fasciculus. However, we detected no significant difference in any brain region between mMDD and aMDD.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that patients with MDD had reduced white matter integrity in some regions; however, there was no major difference between aMDD and mMDD.
Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Miho
M
Ota
Department of Psychiatry, National Center Hospital of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Takamasa
T
Noda
Department of Radiology, National Center Hospital of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Noriko
N
Sato
Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Kotaro
K
Hattori
Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Hiroaki
H
Hori
Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Daimei
D
Sasayama
Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Toshiya
T
Teraishi
Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Anna
A
Nagashima
Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Satoko
S
Obu
National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Teruhiko
T
Higuchi
Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Hiroshi
H
Kunugi
D000328:Adult; D016880:Anisotropy; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000473:pathology*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000473:pathology; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D066127:White Matter / Q000473:pathology*
atypical features; diffusion tensor imaging; major depressive disorder; melancholic features; tract-based spatial statistics