Table 2.
A summary of neuroimaging/neurophysiology biomarkers in diagnosing major depressive disorder in adults
| Study | Category | Comparison method | Cohort (M/F), age (yr) | Biomarkers | Medicationnaive | AUC | Sensitivity/specificity (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guo et al. [32] (2018) | rs-fMRI | DSM-IV, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale | Discovery set: | VMHC - Voxel Mirrored Homotopic Connectivity | Y | Discovery set: | 88.1/92.7 |
| HC=31 (14/17), Age: 29.7 | PCC=0.922 | ||||||
| MDD=59 (20/39), Age: 30.3 | 1. Posterior Cingulate Cortex | Cuneus=0.911 | |||||
| Validation set: | 2. Cuneus | Validation set: | |||||
| HC=24 (13/11), Age: 24.1 | PCC=0.769 | ||||||
| MDD=29 (15/14), Age: 27.0 | Cuneus=0.858 | ||||||
| Zhong et al. [41] (2017) | rs-fMRI | DSM-IV, Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale | Discovery set: | Whole brain functional connectivity: | Y | - | 92/93 |
| HC=33 (16/17), Age: 20.8 | 1. Salience network | ||||||
| MDD=29 (11/18), Age: 21 | 2. Default mode network | ||||||
| Validation set: | 3. Cerebellum | ||||||
| HC=57 (26/31), Age: 21.5 | 4. Visual cortical areas | ||||||
| MDD=46 (22/24), Age: 22.6 | 5. Affective network | ||||||
| Wei et al. [40] (2013). | rs-fMRI | Hamilton Depression Rating Scale | HC=20 (14/6), Age: 30.8 | Hurst exponent | Y | - | |
| 1. Salience network | |||||||
| MDD=20 (10/10), Age: 34.3 | 2. Ventromedial prefrontal network | ||||||
| 3. Lateral prefrontal network | |||||||
| Liu et al. [34] (2013) | rs-fMRI | DMS-IV, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale | HC=20 (10/10), Age: 24.3 | Fractional ALFF | Y | Right cerebellum posterior lobe=0.823 | - |
| 1. Right cerebellum posterior lobe | Right middle frontal gyrus=0.854 | ||||||
| MDD=24 (12/12), Age: 28.1 | 2. Right middle frontal gyrus | Left superior occipital gyrus/cuneus=0.792 | |||||
| 3. Left superior occipital gyrus | Left parahippocampal gyrus=0.930 | ||||||
| 4. Left parahippocampal gyrus | |||||||
| Oliveira et al. [37] (2013) | fMRI | DSM-IV, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale | Discovery set: | 5. Overall brain activation in response to emotional facial expression | Y | Sad v.s. Neutral: | - |
| HC=19 (8/11), Age: 42.8 | HC=0.74, MDD=0.58 | ||||||
| MDD=19 (6/13), Age: 43.2 | Happy v.s. Neutral: | ||||||
| Validation set: | HC=0.70, MDD=0.53 | ||||||
| HC=18 (3/15), Age: 29.8 | |||||||
| MDD=18 (1/17), Age: 31.9 | |||||||
| Niida et al. [36] (2019) | MRI | DSM-IV, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale | HC=43 (11/32), Age: 65.8 | Gray Matter Volume | N | 0.911 | 95.7/96.0 |
| MDD=92 (8/94), Age: 65.9 | 1. Subgenual Anterior Cingulate Cortex (SgACC) | ||||||
| BD=32 (9/23), Age: 64.3 | |||||||
| Hellewell et al. [33] (2019) | MRI | Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale | Discovery set: | Gray Matter Volume | Y | Discovery: 0.750 | - |
| MDD=98 (53/45), Age: 33.3 (12.6) | 1. Midline/Cingulate region | Validation: 0.840 | |||||
| Validation set: | 2. Medial temporal lobe region | ||||||
| MDD=131 (54/77), Age: 33.2 (11.0) | 3. Prefrontal Cortex | ||||||
| Liu et al. [35] (2016) | MRI | DSM-IV, Major Depression Inventory | HC=49 (25/24), Age: 39.0 | Grey Matter Volume - Structural Asymmetry Index | Y | 0.635 | 61.0/59.0 |
| MDD=39 (15/24), Age: 38.2 | 1. Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex | ||||||
| Ramasubbu et al. [38] (2019) | ASL-MRI | DSM-IV, Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Rating Scale | Discovery set: | Cerebral blood flow + Sex of participant | Y | - | 80.0/75.0 |
| HC=19 (2/17), Age: 42.4 | |||||||
| MDD=20 (2/18), Age: 44.2 | |||||||
| Validation set: | |||||||
| HC=12 (3/9), Age: 44.3 | |||||||
| MDD=12 (3/9), Age: 45.5 | |||||||
| Schnyer et al. [39] (2017) | DTI-MRI | DSM-IV, Beck Depression Index, Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms | HC=25 (12/13), Age: 19–33 | Fractional Anisotropy | N | - | Whole: 60.0/80.0 |
| MDD=25 (12/13), Age: 18–31 | 1. Right Corpus Callosum | Right hemisphere only: 56.0/84.0 | |||||
| 2. Right hemisphere only | |||||||
| Lubiński et al. [43] (2023) | EEG | Hamilton Depression Rating Scale | HC=20, Age: 47.3 | Pattern Visual Evoked Potentials (PVEP) | Y | 0.841 | 76.0/1.0 |
| MDD=29, Age: 46.8 | 1. AP100 (Amplitude) | ||||||
| 2. PTP 100 (Peak time) | |||||||
| Husain et al. [42] (2020) | fNIRS | DSM-V, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale | HC=105 (40/65), Age: 36.4 | Regional oxy-hemoglobin | Y | Frontal=0.760 | - |
| MDD=105 (45/60), Age: 36.2 | 1. Frontal | Temporal=0.820 | |||||
| 2. Temporal | |||||||
| Pillai et al. [44] (2018) | PET | DSM-IV, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Beck Depression Index, Global Assessment Scale | HC=25 (25/0), Age: 40.2 | 5-HT1A Autoreceptor binding | Y | 0.934 | 94.0/1.0 |
| MDD=16 (16/0), Age: 40.1 | 1. Dorsal Raphe Nuclei | ||||||
| 2. Median Raphe Nuclei |
Value of age are presented as mean, mean (standard deviation), or range. M, male; F, female; AUC, area under the curve; HC, healthy control; MDD, major depressive disorder; N, no; Y, yes; fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging; rs-fMRI, resting state fMRI; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; DSM, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; PCC, posterior cerebral cortex; BD, bipolar disorder; ASL-MRI, arterial spin labelling-MRI; DTI-MRI, diffusion tensor imaging-MRI; EEG, electroencephalogram; PET, positron emission tomography