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Annals of General Psychiatry
Published in: Annals of General Psychiatry 1/2018

Open Access 01-12-2018 | Primary research

Amygdala functional connectivity in female patients with major depressive disorder with and without suicidal ideation

Authors: Shengnan Wei, Miao Chang, Ran Zhang, Xiaowei Jiang, Fei Wang, Yanqing Tang

Published in: Annals of General Psychiatry | Issue 1/2018

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Abstract

Background

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a known major risk factor for suicide and is one of the most common mental disorders. Meanwhile, gender differences in suicidal behavior have long been recognized including the finding that women have higher rates of suicidal ideation and/or suicidal behavior than men. The mechanism underlying suicide ideation in female patients with MDD remains poorly understood. The aim of the present study was to examine possible suicidal behavior-related neural circuitry in female MDD.

Methods

In this study, 15 female participants with the first-episode MDD with suicidal ideation and 24 participants with the first-episode MDD without suicidal ideation as well as 39 female participants in a healthy control (HC) group, ranging in age from 18 to 50 years, underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The whole-brain amygdala resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) was compared among these three groups.

Results

Compared with female participants with the first-episode MDD without suicidal ideation and those in the HC group, female participants with the first-episode MDD with suicidal ideation showed a significant difference in rsFC between the amygdala and precuneus/cuneus (p < 0.05, corrected). No significant difference in amygdala–precuneus/cuneus rsFC was observed between female patients with the first-episode MDD without suicidal ideation and the HC group (p < 0.05, corrected).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that suicidal ideation in female patients with the first-episode MDD may be related to an abnormality in amygdala neural circuitry. The abnormality in amygdala–precuneus/cuneus functional connectivity might present the trait feature for suicide in women with the first-episode MDD. The precuneus/cuneus may be an important region related to suicide and require future study.
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Metadata
Title
Amygdala functional connectivity in female patients with major depressive disorder with and without suicidal ideation
Authors
Shengnan Wei
Miao Chang
Ran Zhang
Xiaowei Jiang
Fei Wang
Yanqing Tang
Publication date
01-12-2018
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Annals of General Psychiatry / Issue 1/2018
Electronic ISSN: 1744-859X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-018-0208-0

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