Personalized brain circuit scores identify distinct biotypes in depression and anxiety
2024
Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, USA
There is an urgent need to derive quantitative measures based on coherent neurobiological dysfunctions or ‘biotypes’ to enable stratification of patients with depression and anxiety. Here, task-free and task-evoked data from a standardized functional magnetic resonance imaging protocol across multiple studies in patients with depression and anxiety when treatment free and after randomization to pharmacotherapy or behavioural therapy was used. From these patients, personalized and interpretable scores of brain circuit dysfunction grounded in a theoretical taxonomy were derived. Participants were subdivided into six biotypes defined by distinct profiles of intrinsic task-free functional connectivity, and activation and connectivity elicited by emotional and cognitive tasks. The six biotypes showed consistency with the theoretical taxonomy in this study, and were distinguished by symptoms, behavioural performance, and response to pharmacotherapy as well as behavioural therapy. The results provide a new, theory-driven, clinically validated and interpretable quantitative method to parse the biological heterogeneity of depression and anxiety. Thus, they represent a promising approach to advance precision clinical care in psychiatry.
Personalized brain circuit scores identify clinically distinct biotypes in depression and anxiety
Leanne M. Williams
Added on: 07-29-2024
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03057-9
