Hao Huang1, Xin Fan1, Uma Rao2
1Advanced Imaging Research
Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United
States; 2Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States
Unipolar Depression is among the leading causes of disability world-wide. Adolescence is the highest risk period for the development of unipolar depressive disorder, and there is evidence for an increasing secular trend. To test whether the white matter changes precede the onset of illness, a total of 43 adolescent subjects were recruited and underwent diffusion tensor imaging studies. An automated tract-based spatial statistics method incorporating JHU digital white matter atlas was used to analyze the scans. Pair-wise comparisons revealed lower FA values for both MDD and HR-MDD at identical white matter tracts, indicating similar traits of white matter disruption.