Citation

Kang SG, Cho SE, Na KS, Lee JS, Joo SW, Cho SJ, Son YD, Lee YJ. Psychiatry Res. Neuroimaging 2020; 297: e111032.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Center for Sleep and Chronobiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: ewpsyche@snu.ac.kr.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.pscychresns.2020.111032

PMID

32028105

Abstract

The neurobiological causes underlying suicidal behaviors in major depressive disorder (MDD) have not been identified. This study was performed to investigate the differences in brain cortical thickness, surface area, and volume between suicide attempters and non-attempters with MDD. We performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 38 MDD patients (18-65 years old; 18 male, 20 female) with and without a history of suicide attempts. FreeSurfer software was used to compare the cortical thickness, surface area, and volume of 19 suicide attempters with MDD and 19 suicide non-attempters with MDD, while controlling for age, sex, mean area (or volume), and severity of depression. Compared with suicide non-attempters, suicide attempters with MDD exhibited a larger surface area in the left postcentral area and left lateral occipital area and a larger cortical volume in the left postcentral area and left lateral orbitofrontal area. Suicide attempters exhibited a smaller surface area in the left superior frontal area than suicide non-attempters. The present findings provide evidence for neuroanatomical risk factors of suicide in MDD. Further research to replicate these results and determine the mechanisms underlying these findings is needed.

Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Cortical volume; FreeSurfer; Major depressive disorder; Suicide attempt; Surface area