title: Brain gray matter alterations in first episodes of depression: A meta-analysis of whole-brain studies.
abstract: Though numerous studies have implicated structural abnormalities in chronically depressive patients, relatively little attention has been paid to the brain alterations in patients experiencing first episode depression (FED). The investigation of FED is important for elucidating the core pathophysiology of this disease independent of other potentially confounding factors. The present study was to provide a quantitative voxelwise meta-analysis of gray matter (GM) changes in FED using effect-size signed differential mapping (ES-SDM). The pooled meta-analysis revealed GM reductions in the right supplementary motor area, left insula, and right middle temporal gyrus in FED patients compared with the healthy controls. No GM volume increases were found. The meta-regression analyses showed that studies including patients with higher HDRS scores were significantly more likely to present reduced GM volumes in the right amygdala. This meta-analysis indicates that FED patients have significantly and robustly reduced gray matter mainly associated with emotion regulation and sensorimotor areas alterations may be specific changes in early stage of this disease.
authors.affiliation: Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Huawei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Ziqi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Xinyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Hongyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China; Department of Nuclear Medicine, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. Electronic address: zhiyunjia@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Zhiyun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China; Department of Psychology, School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. Electronic address: qiyonggong@hmrrc.org.cn.
authors.forename: Qiyong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Gong
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D011508:Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycans; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000473:pathology*; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007632:Keratan Sulfate; D000071234:Lumican
chemical_list: D011508:Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycans; C000604306:LUM protein, human; D000071234:Lumican; D007632:Keratan Sulfate
keywords: Effect-size signed differential mapping (ES-SDM); First episode depression; Meta-analysis; Voxel-based morphometry (VBM)