Cerebral and cerebellar gray matter reduction in first-episode patients with major depressive disorder: A voxel-based morphometry study

Abstract Purpose To investigate cerebral and cerebellar gray matter abnormalities in patients with first-episode major depressive disorder (MDD). Materials and methods We examined the structural difference in regional gray matter density (GMD) between 22 first-episode MDD patients and 30 age-, gender- and education-matched healthy controls by optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM) based on magnetic resonance imaging. Results Compared with healthy controls, MDD patients showed decreased GMD in the right medial and left lateral orbitofrontal cortex, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), bilateral temporal pole, right superior temporal gyrus, bilateral anterior insular cortex, left parahippocampal gyrus, and left cerebellum. In addition, in MDD patients, there was a negative correlation between GMD values of the right DLPFC and the score of the depression rating scale. Conclusions Our findings provided additional support for the involvement of limbic-cortical circuits in the pathophysiology of MDD and preliminary evidence that a defect involving the cerebellum may also be implicated.