Early-stage psychotherapy produces elevated frontal white matter integrity in adult major depressive disorder.
BACKGROUND: Psychotherapy has demonstrated comparable efficacy to antidepressant medication in the treatment of major depressive disorder. Metabolic alterations in the MDD state and in response to treatment have been detected by functional imaging methods, but the underlying white matter microstruct...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2013-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3640008?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1828204440313659392 |
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| author | Tao Wang Xiaolan Huang Peiyu Huang Dan Li Fajin Lv Yong Zhang Linke Zhou Deyu Yang Peng Xie |
| author_facet | Tao Wang Xiaolan Huang Peiyu Huang Dan Li Fajin Lv Yong Zhang Linke Zhou Deyu Yang Peng Xie |
| author_sort | Tao Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | BACKGROUND: Psychotherapy has demonstrated comparable efficacy to antidepressant medication in the treatment of major depressive disorder. Metabolic alterations in the MDD state and in response to treatment have been detected by functional imaging methods, but the underlying white matter microstructural changes remain unknown. The goal of this study is to apply diffusion tensor imaging techniques to investigate psychotherapy-specific responses in the white matter. METHODS: Twenty-one of forty-five outpatients diagnosed with major depression underwent diffusion tensor imaging before and after a four-week course of guided imagery psychotherapy. We compared fractional anisotropy in depressed patients (n = 21) with healthy controls (n = 22), and before-after treatment, using whole brain voxel-wise analysis. RESULTS: Post-treatment, depressed subjects showed a significant reduction in the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. As compared to healthy controls, depressed subjects demonstrated significantly increased fractional anisotropy in the right thalamus. Psychopathological changes did not recover post-treatment, but a novel region of increased fractional anisotropy was discovered in the frontal lobe. CONCLUSIONS: At an early stage of psychotherapy, higher fractional anisotropy was detected in the frontal emotional regulation-associated region. This finding reveals that psychotherapy may induce white matter changes in the frontal lobe. This remodeling of frontal connections within mood regulation networks positively contributes to the "top-down" mechanism of psychotherapy. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T12:22:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-defc60a8159d4265a5781486ec7c6ecd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T12:22:19Z |
| publishDate | 2013-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-defc60a8159d4265a5781486ec7c6ecd2022-12-22T03:33:16ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032013-01-0184e6308110.1371/journal.pone.0063081Early-stage psychotherapy produces elevated frontal white matter integrity in adult major depressive disorder.Tao WangXiaolan HuangPeiyu HuangDan LiFajin LvYong ZhangLinke ZhouDeyu YangPeng XieBACKGROUND: Psychotherapy has demonstrated comparable efficacy to antidepressant medication in the treatment of major depressive disorder. Metabolic alterations in the MDD state and in response to treatment have been detected by functional imaging methods, but the underlying white matter microstructural changes remain unknown. The goal of this study is to apply diffusion tensor imaging techniques to investigate psychotherapy-specific responses in the white matter. METHODS: Twenty-one of forty-five outpatients diagnosed with major depression underwent diffusion tensor imaging before and after a four-week course of guided imagery psychotherapy. We compared fractional anisotropy in depressed patients (n = 21) with healthy controls (n = 22), and before-after treatment, using whole brain voxel-wise analysis. RESULTS: Post-treatment, depressed subjects showed a significant reduction in the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. As compared to healthy controls, depressed subjects demonstrated significantly increased fractional anisotropy in the right thalamus. Psychopathological changes did not recover post-treatment, but a novel region of increased fractional anisotropy was discovered in the frontal lobe. CONCLUSIONS: At an early stage of psychotherapy, higher fractional anisotropy was detected in the frontal emotional regulation-associated region. This finding reveals that psychotherapy may induce white matter changes in the frontal lobe. This remodeling of frontal connections within mood regulation networks positively contributes to the "top-down" mechanism of psychotherapy.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3640008?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Tao Wang Xiaolan Huang Peiyu Huang Dan Li Fajin Lv Yong Zhang Linke Zhou Deyu Yang Peng Xie Early-stage psychotherapy produces elevated frontal white matter integrity in adult major depressive disorder. PLoS ONE |
| title | Early-stage psychotherapy produces elevated frontal white matter integrity in adult major depressive disorder. |
| title_full | Early-stage psychotherapy produces elevated frontal white matter integrity in adult major depressive disorder. |
| title_fullStr | Early-stage psychotherapy produces elevated frontal white matter integrity in adult major depressive disorder. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Early-stage psychotherapy produces elevated frontal white matter integrity in adult major depressive disorder. |
| title_short | Early-stage psychotherapy produces elevated frontal white matter integrity in adult major depressive disorder. |
| title_sort | early stage psychotherapy produces elevated frontal white matter integrity in adult major depressive disorder |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3640008?pdf=render |
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