ArticlePloS one2014
Insular and hippocampal gray matter volume reductions in patients with major depressive disorder.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 165 citations in OpenAlex.
- Shared genetic underpinnings of gray matter volume alterations and metabolic traits in major depressive disorder.BMC psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Structural rather than functional brain alterations that characterize the differences between major depressive disorder and primary insomnia: a comparative meta-analysis.BMC medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Structural and functional brain alterations in subthreshold depression: A multimodal coordinate-based meta-analysis.Human brain mapping · 2024Pooled it
- The Dark and Gloomy Brain: Grey Matter Volume Alterations in Major Depressive Disorder-Fine-Grained Meta-Analyses.Depression and anxiety · 2024Pooled it
- Gray matter abnormalities in patients with major depressive disorder and social anxiety disorder: a voxel-based meta-analysis.Brain imaging and behavior · 2023Pooled it
- Cognitive impairment and depression: Meta-analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging studies.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2021Pooled it
- Reduced Brain Gray Matter Volume in Patients With First-Episode Major Depressive Disorder: A Quantitative Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Volumetric brain differences in clinical depression in association with anxiety: a systematic review with meta-analysis.Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN · 2020Pooled it
- Increased hippocampal tail volume predicts depression status and remission to anti-depressant medications in major depression.Molecular psychiatry · 2018Trial
- Toward an Embodied Medicine: A Portable Device with Programmable Interoceptive Stimulation for Heart Rate Variability Enhancement.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Trial
- Illness Severity and Longitudinal Gray Matter Volumes Among People With Major Depressive Disorder.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- [KLF10 overexpression alleviates neuroinflammation and anxiety-depressive disorder in rats by downregulating the NF-κB/NLRP3 pathway].Nan fang yi ke da xue xue bao = Journal of Southern Medical University · 2026Article
- Anterior insular cortex regulates depression-like and ASD-like behaviors via the differential contribution of two subsets of microglia.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Brain structural correlates of an impending initial major depressive episode.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Hippocampal gray matter volume alterations in patients with first-episode and recurrent major depressive disorder and their associations with gene profiles.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- The X chromosome's influences on the human brain.Science advances · 2025Article
- Depicting Coupling Between Cortical Morphology and Functional Networks in Major Depressive Disorder.Depression and anxiety · 2025Article
- Abnormal Structure-Function Coupling in Major Depressive Disorder Patients With and Without Anhedonia.Depression and anxiety · 2025Article
- Alterations of brainstem volume in patients with first-episode and recurrent major depressive disorder.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Reduced anterior insular cortex volume in male heroin addicts: a postmortem study.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2023Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMajor depressive disorder is a serious psychiatric illness with a highly variable and heterogeneous clinical course. Due to the lack of consistent data from previous studies, the study of morphometric changes in major depressive disorder is still a major point of research requiring additional studies. The aim of the study presented here was to characterize and quantify regional gray matter abnormalities in a large sample of clinically well-characterized patients with major depressive disorder.
methodsFor this study one-hundred thirty two patients with major depressive disorder and 132 age- and gender-matched healthy control participants were included, 35 with their first episode and 97 with recurrent depression. To analyse gray matter abnormalities, voxel-based morphometry (VBM8) was employed on T1 weighted MRI data. We performed whole-brain analyses as well as a region-of-interest approach on the hippocampal formation, anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala, correlating the number of depressive episodes.
resultsCompared to healthy control persons, patients showed a strong gray-matter reduction in the right anterior insula. In addition, region-of-interest analyses revealed significant gray-matter reductions in the hippocampal formation. The observed alterations were more severe in patients with recurrent depressive episodes than in patients with a first episode. The number of depressive episodes was negatively correlated with gray-matter volume in the right hippocampus and right amygdala.
conclusionsThe anterior insula gray matter structure appears to be strongly affected in major depressive disorder and might play an important role in the neurobiology of depression. The hippocampal and amygdala volume loss cumulating with the number of episodes might be explained either by repeated neurotoxic stress or alternatively by higher relapse rates in patients showing hippocampal atrophy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.