Brain gray matter alterations in first episodes of depression: A meta-analysis of whole-brain studies

Though numerous studies have implicated structural abnormalities in chronically depressive patients, relatively little attention has been paid to the brain alterations in patients experiencing first episode depression (FED). The investigation of FED is important for elucidating the core pathophysiology of this disease independent of other potentially confounding factors. The present study was to provide a quantitative voxelwise meta-analysis of gray matter (GM) changes in FED using effect-size signed differential mapping (ES-SDM). The pooled meta-analysis revealed GM reductions in the right supplementary motor area, left insula, and right middle temporal gyrus in FED patients compared with the healthy controls. No GM volume increases were found. The meta-regression analyses showed that studies including patients with higher HDRS scores were significantly more likely to present reduced GM volumes in the right amygdala. This meta-analysis indicates that FED patients have significantly and robustly reduced gray matter mainly associated with emotion regulation and sensorimotor areas alterations may be specific changes in early stage of this disease.