Widespread white matter but focal gray matter alterations in depressed individuals with thoughts of death
Open accessAbstract
Background Past work demonstrates that depressed individuals with suicidal thoughts or behaviors exhibit specific neuroanatomical alterations. This may represent a distinct phenotype characterized by specific findings on neuroimaging, but it is unclear if these findings extend to individuals with milder thoughts of death. We examined this question in outpatients with recurrent Major Depressive Disorder not receiving antidepressant treatment.Methods We examined 165 subjects: 53 depressed without thoughts of death, 21 depressed with thoughts of death, and 91 healthy comparison subjects. Participants completed 3T cranial MRI, including anatomical and diffusion tensor imaging acquisitions. Automated methods measured regional gray matter volumes in addition to cortical thickness. White matter analyses examined diffusion measures within specific fiber tracts and included voxelwise comparisons.Results After adjustment for multiple comparisons, the depressed group with thoughts of death did not exhibit differences in regional gray matter volume, but did exhibit reduced cortical thickness in frontoparietal regions and the insula. This depressed group with thoughts of death also exhibited widespread white matter differences in fractional anisotropy and radial diffusivity. These differences were observed primarily in posterior parietal white matter regions and central white matter tracts adjacent to the basal ganglia and thalamus.Conclusions Mild thoughts of death are associated with structural alterations in regions of the salience network, default mode network, and thalamocortical circuits. Further work is needed to understand the pathological basis of these findings.
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DTI studies of suicidal ideation are inconclusive.
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From A brain-centric model of suicidal behavior (2020) · cites this paper as [83]
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“Previous literature showed lower FA (compared to healthy controls) in the cingulum bundle, anterior thalamic radiation, posterior limb of the internal capsule and the superior and posterior corona radiata in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and suicidal thoughts (Taylor et al., 2015).”
- Authors
- Taylor, W. D., Boyd, B., McQuoid, D. R., Kudra, K., Saleh, A., & MacFall, J. R.
- Affiliations
- VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System (US)
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center (US)
- Duke Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Taylor, Warren D.
- Venue
- Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-10
- Volume
- 62
- Pages
- 22-28
- ISSN
- 0278-5846 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4458419
- OpenAlex
- W247871665
- Cited by
- 79
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 4
- FWCI
- 4.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Vanderbilt University
- National Institutes of Health (UL1TR000445)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH077745)
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U54HD083211)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- major depressive disorder, suicidal ideation, white matter changes, gray matter volume, cortical thickness, salience network, default mode network, thalamocortical circuits, insula, fractional anisotropy, radial diffusivity, recurrent depression
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Organ Size, Pattern Recognition, Automated, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Suicidal Ideation, White Matter, Gray Matter
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