Distinct and common gray matter volume and cortical thickness abnormalities between non-comorbid medication-naive patients with major depressive disorder and social anxiety disorder

An overlap of diagnosis frequently occurs between major depression disorder (MDD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) and few studies directly compare neuroanatomical abnormalities in the two disorders. Pure MDD patients (n = 37), pure SAD patients (n = 24) and healthy controls (n = 41) underwent T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Gray matter volume and cortical thickness were compared in the three groups. The main findings of this study were that (i) MDD and SAD patients shared common neural substrates in frontal-subcortical circuits; and (ii) MDD patients manifested more widespread brain structure alterations than SAD patients.