Background: Adolescent depression results in severe and protracted suffering for affected individuals and their family members, but the underlying mechanism of this disabling condition remains unclear.
Objectives: Compare resting-state brain functioning between first-episode, drug-naïve adolescents with major depressive disorder and matched controls.
Methods: Fifteen adolescents with major depressive disorder and 16 controls underwent a resting-state fMRI scan performed using a 3T magnetic resonance scanner. The amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) was used to assess resting-state brain function.
Results: Adolescents with depression had higher mean (sd) scores on the Children Depression Inventory (CDI) than controls (22.13 [9.21] vs. 9.37 [5.65]). Compared with controls, adolescents with depression had higher ALFF in the posterior cingulate gyrus, left inferior temporal gyrus, right superior temporal gyrus, right insula, right parietal lobe, and right fusiform gyrus; they also exhibited lower ALFF in the bilateral cuneus, the left occipital lobe, and the left medial frontal lobe.
Conclusions: Adolescent depression is associated with significant changes in the functioning of several regions of the brain.
背景: 青少年抑郁症对患者及其家庭成员会产生长期 严重的痛苦，但这种致残状况的潜在机制仍不清楚。
目的: 比较未经药物的青少年首发抑郁症患者和匹配 的对照者之间的大脑功能静息状态。
方法: 使用3T磁共振扫描仪对15名青少年抑郁 症患者和16名对照者进行功能磁共振静息状态扫 描。采用低频振荡振幅（amplitude of low frequency fluctuation，ALFF）来评估脑功能静息态。
结果: 青少年抑郁症患者的儿童抑郁量表评分的均值 （标准差）高于对照组（22.13[9.21]与9.37[5.65]）。 与对照组相比，青少年抑郁症患者在扣带回后部、左 颞下回、右颞上回、右岛叶、右侧顶叶和右侧梭状回 具有较高的ALFF；而在双侧楔叶、左枕叶和左内侧额 叶表现出较低的ALFF。
结论: 青少年抑郁症与大脑多个区域的显著功能变化有关。
Keywords: China; adolescents; case-control studies; magnetic resonance imaging; major depressive disorder.