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European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
Published in: European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 2/2020

01-03-2020 | Original Paper

Caudothalamic dysfunction in drug-free suicidally depressed patients: an MEG study

Authors: Mohammad Ridwan Chattun, Siqi Zhang, Yu Chen, Qiang Wang, Nousayhah Amdanee, Shui Tian, Qing Lu, Zhijian Yao

Published in: European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience | Issue 2/2020

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Abstract

Major depressive disorder (MDD), characterized by low mood or anhedonia, is commonly associated with a greater suicidal susceptibility. There are numerous suicide-related findings pertaining to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), caudate nucleus and thalamus, which form a cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) circuit responsible for executive function and working memory. An aberrant CSTC circuitry is hypothesized to be implicated in depressed patients with a high suicidal risk. 27 MDD patients were assessed with the Nurses Global Assessment of Suicide Risk (NGASR), following which 14 patients were classified into a high suicide risk group (NGASR ≥ 12) and 13 patients were assigned to a low suicide risk group (NGASR < 6). All 27 patients were enrolled with 25 healthy controls for resting-state magnetoencephalography (MEG). Cross-frequency coupling (CFC) measured the phase of alpha-band (8–13 Hz) as it modulated to cortical gamma-band (30–48 Hz). There was a significantly lower alpha-to-gamma phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) between the right caudate and left thalamus in high-risk suicide group compared to both the low-risk suicide group and healthy controls. The presence of a weaker coupling between the right caudate and left thalamus is indicative of a caudothalamic abnormality in suicidally depressed patients. This implies that a disruption of CSTC loop could result in executive dysfunction and working memory impairment, leading to an increased suicidal risk in MDD patients. In the future, this preliminary study has the possibility of being replicated on a larger scale, and hence validates caudothalamic dysfunction as a reliable neuroimaging biomarker for suicide in depression.
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Metadata
Title
Caudothalamic dysfunction in drug-free suicidally depressed patients: an MEG study
Authors
Mohammad Ridwan Chattun
Siqi Zhang
Yu Chen
Qiang Wang
Nousayhah Amdanee
Shui Tian
Qing Lu
Zhijian Yao
Publication date
01-03-2020
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience / Issue 2/2020
Print ISSN: 0940-1334
Electronic ISSN: 1433-8491
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-018-0968-1

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