Abstract
Suicide is a major concern for health, and depression is an established proximal risk factor for suicide. This study aimed to investigate white matter features associated with suicide. We constructed white matter structural networks by deterministic tractography via diffusion tensor imaging in 51 healthy controls, 47 depressed patients without suicide plans or attempts and 56 depressed patients with suicide plans or attempts. Then, graph theory analysis was used to measure global and nodal network properties. We found that local efficiency was decreased and path length was increased in suicidal depressed patients compared to healthy controls and non-suicidal depressed patients; moreover, the clustering coefficient was decreased in depressed patients compared to healthy controls; and the global efficiency and normalized characteristic path length was increased in suicidal depressed patients compared to healthy controls. Similarly, compared with those in non-suicidal depressed patients, nodal efficiency in the thalamus, caudate, medial orbitofrontal cortex, hippocampus, olfactory cortex, supplementary motor area and Rolandic operculum was decreased. In summary, compared with those of non-suicidal depressed patients, the structural connectome of suicidal depressed patients exhibited weakened integration and segregation and decreased nodal efficiency in the fronto-limbic-basal ganglia-thalamic circuitry. These alterations in the structural networks of depressed suicidal brains provide insights into the underlying neurobiology of brain features associated with suicide.
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We thank all the participants including in this study.
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This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82271947, 81971595, 81820108018 and 81621003), the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (CIFMS) (NO. 2022-I2M-C&T-B-104), the Key Program of Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (2022NSFSC0047), the 1·3·5 Project for Disciplines of Excellence–Clinical Research Incubation Project, West China Hospital, Sichuan University (2020HXFH005), and the Key R&D Support Plan of Chengdu Science and Technology Bureau (Grant No. 2022-YF05-01766-SN).
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HRL contributed to the analysis and interpretation of data and drafting for the work. HWZ and HRL contributed to acquisition of imaging data. LY, HWZ and TLC contributed to acquisition of clinical scale data. KQ contributed to the analysis and interpretation of data. JAS, FFZ and ZQC revised it critically for important intellectual content. QYG and ZYJ contributed to the conception and design of the work, and made final approval for the version to be published. All authors approved the final version of the paper.
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Li, H., Zhang, H., Qin, K. et al. Disrupted small-world white matter networks in patients with major depression and recent suicide plans or attempts. Brain Imaging and Behavior (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-024-00870-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-024-00870-1