Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci
July 2025
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) leads to temporary changes of brain function. It is unclear what changes take place shortly after the induced seizures. Here, we present the first human study on resting-state network (RSN) changes in the immediate postictal state.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a neuromodulatory intervention for severe, treatment-refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We conducted the first meta-analysis using individual participant outcome data, systematically evaluating (1) efficacy of DBS compared to sham-stimulation in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), (2) adverse events and (3) methodological trial quality.
Methods: We conducted a systematic search across multiple databases, including all RCTs comparing DBS with sham in adults with OCD, regardless of stimulation target.
J Affect Disord
November 2025
Background: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a first-line treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but clinical response is difficult to predict. In this study, we aimed to develop predictive models using clinical and neuroimaging data from the multicenter Enhancing Neuro-Imaging and Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA)-OCD consortium.
Methods: Baseline clinical and resting-state functional magnetic imaging (rs-fMRI) data from 159 adult patients aged 18-60 years (88 female) with OCD who received CBT at four treatment/neuroimaging sites were included.
Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) results in about 50 % response and 30 % remission. Response prediction may optimize patient selection, which is currently based on expert opinion. Here, we provide a comprehensive and systematic overview of the available data and explore if expert opinion is supported quantitatively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFmedRxiv
February 2025
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a first-line treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but clinical response is difficult to predict. In this study, we aimed to develop predictive models using clinical and neuroimaging data from the multicenter Enhancing Neuro-Imaging and Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA)-OCD consortium. Baseline clinical and resting-state functional magnetic imaging (rs-fMRI) data from 159 adult patients aged 18-60 years (88 female) with OCD who received CBT at four treatment/neuroimaging sites were included.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElectroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective treatment for depression but is often associated with cognitive side effects. In patients, ECT-induced electric field (E-field) strength across brain regions varies significantly due to anatomical differences, which may explain individual differences in cognitive side effects. We examined the relationship between regional E-field strength and change in verbal fluency score (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn Clin Transl Neurol
September 2024
Objective: The postictal state is underrecognized in epilepsy. Animal models show improvement of postictal symptoms and cerebral perfusion with acetaminophen or nimodipine. We studied the effects of acetaminophen or nimodipine on postictal electroencephalographic (EEG) recovery, clinical reorientation, and hypoperfusion in patients with ECT-induced seizures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhite matter pathways, typically studied with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), have been implicated in the neurobiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, due to limited sample sizes and the predominance of single-site studies, the generalizability of OCD classification based on diffusion white matter estimates remains unclear. Here, we tested classification accuracy using the largest OCD DTI dataset to date, involving 1336 adult participants (690 OCD patients and 646 healthy controls) and 317 pediatric participants (175 OCD patients and 142 healthy controls) from 18 international sites within the ENIGMA OCD Working Group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurostimulation is a mainstream treatment option for major depression. Neuromodulation techniques apply repetitive magnetic or electrical stimulation to some neural target but significantly differ in their invasiveness, spatial selectivity, mechanism of action, and efficacy. Despite these differences, recent analyses of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS)-treated individuals converged on a common neural network that might have a causal role in treatment response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Postictal symptoms may result from cerebral hypoperfusion, which is possibly a consequence of seizure-induced vasoconstriction. Longer seizures have previously been shown to cause more severe postictal hypoperfusion in rats and epilepsy patients. We studied cerebral perfusion after generalized seizures elicited by electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and its relation to seizure duration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is one of the most effective treatments for severe depressive disorders. A recent multi-center study found no consistent changes in correlation-based (undirected) resting-state connectivity after ECT. Effective (directed) connectivity may provide more insight into the working mechanism of ECT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Hum Behav
August 2023
Numerous neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural basis of interindividual differences but the replicability of brain-phenotype associations remains largely unknown. We used the UK Biobank neuroimaging dataset (N = 37,447) to examine associations with six variables related to physical and mental health: age, body mass index, intelligence, memory, neuroticism and alcohol consumption, and assessed the improvement of replicability for brain-phenotype associations with increasing sampling sizes. Age may require only 300 individuals to provide highly replicable associations but other phenotypes required 1,500 to 3,900 individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The ability to predict the disease course of individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) is essential for optimal treatment planning. Here, we used a data-driven machine learning approach to assess the predictive value of different sets of biological data (whole-blood proteomics, lipid metabolomics, transcriptomics, genetics), both separately and added to clinical baseline variables, for the longitudinal prediction of 2-year remission status in MDD at the individual-subject level.
Methods: Prediction models were trained and cross-validated in a sample of 643 patients with current MDD (2-year remission n = 325) and subsequently tested for performance in 161 individuals with MDD (2-year remission n = 82).
Current knowledge about functional connectivity in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is based on small-scale studies, limiting the generalizability of results. Moreover, the majority of studies have focused only on predefined regions or functional networks rather than connectivity throughout the entire brain. Here, we investigated differences in resting-state functional connectivity between OCD patients and healthy controls (HC) using mega-analysis of data from 1024 OCD patients and 1028 HC from 28 independent samples of the ENIGMA-OCD consortium.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeep brain stimulation (DBS) of the ventral anterior limb of the internal capsule (vALIC) is a promising intervention for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). However, the working mechanisms of vALIC DBS in TRD remain largely unexplored. As major depressive disorder has been associated with aberrant amygdala functioning, we investigated whether vALIC DBS affects amygdala responsivity and functional connectivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF. Deep brain stimulation is a treatment option for patients with refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder. A new generation of stimulators hold promise for closed loop stimulation, with adaptive stimulation in response to biologic signals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Severe postictal confusion (sPIC) is an important but poorly investigated adverse effect of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In this retrospective study, prevalence of sPIC and potential risk factors were explored.
Methods: Medical charts of 295 ECT patients (mean ± SD age, 57 ± 15 years; male, 36%) were scrutinized for occurrence of sPIC, as well as demographic, clinical, and treatment characteristics.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with structural and functional brain abnormalities. MDD as well as brain anatomy and function are influenced by genetic factors, but the role of gene expression remains unclear. Here, this work investigates how cortical gene expression contributes to structural and functional brain abnormalities in MDD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Widely used psychotropic medications for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may change the volumes of subcortical brain structures, and differently in children vs. adults. We measured subcortical volumes cross-sectionally in patients finely stratified for age taking various common classes of OCD drugs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging
March 2023
Background: Mental health and cognitive achievement are partly heritable, highly polygenic, and associated with brain variations in structure and function. However, the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear.
Methods: We investigated the association between genetic predispositions to various mental health and cognitive traits and a large set of structural and functional brain measures from the UK Biobank (N = 36,799).