ReviewThe American journal of psychiatry2015
Identifying predictors, moderators, and mediators of antidepressant response in major depressive disorder: neuroimaging approaches.
Review in The American journal of psychiatry, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 119 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
119 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 267 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neuroimaging studies of acupuncture for depressive disorder: a systematic review of published papers from 2014 to 2024.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Towards causal inference-based antidepressant selection with brain and blood biomarkers.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Trial
- Medial parietal alpha-frequency transcranial alternating current stimulation for chronic insomnia: a randomized sham-controlled trial.Psychological medicine · 2025Trial
- Neural substrates of emotional conflict with anxiety in major depressive disorder: Findings from the Establishing Moderators and biosignatures of Antidepressant Response in Clinical Care (EMBARC) randomized controlled trial.Journal of psychiatric research · 2022Trial
- Patterns of Pretreatment Reward Task Brain Activation Predict Individual Antidepressant Response: Key Results From the EMBARC Randomized Clinical Trial.Biological psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Prefrontal resting-state connectivity and antidepressant response: no associations in the ELECT-TDCS trial.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2021Trial
- Pretreatment Reward Sensitivity and Frontostriatal Resting-State Functional Connectivity Are Associated With Response to Bupropion After Sertraline Nonresponse.Biological psychiatry · 2020Trial
- Neural Indicators of Anhedonia: Predictors and Mechanisms of Treatment Change in a Randomized Clinical Trial in Early Childhood Depression.Biological psychiatry · 2019Trial
- Prefrontal networks dynamically related to recovery from major depressive disorder: a longitudinal pharmacological fMRI study.Translational psychiatry · 2019Trial
- Predictive modeling of treatment resistant depression using data from STAR*D and an independent clinical study.PloS one · 2018Trial
- Blunted amygdala activity is associated with depression severity in treatment-resistant depression.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2017Trial
- Treating major depression with yoga: A prospective, randomized, controlled pilot trial.PloS one · 2017Trial
- Acupuncture treatment modulates the corticostriatal reward circuitry in major depressive disorder.Journal of psychiatric research · 2017Trial
- Repeated acupuncture treatments modulate amygdala resting state functional connectivity of depressive patients.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2016Trial
- Development of a baseline battery to optimize depression treatment assignment in primary care: Balancing breadth and brevity.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Neural predictors of treatment outcome through emotion regulation in internalizing disorders: a narrative review.Translational psychiatry · 2026Review
- Resting-State Functional Connectivity Changes Associated With Post-Traumatic Stress and Anxiety Symptoms in North Korean Refugees.Psychiatry investigation · 2026Article
- Distinct Trajectories of Amygdala Connectivity Patterns Characterize Remission vs. Non-Remission in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder.Depression and anxiety · 2026Article
- Application of functional near-infrared spectroscopy in evaluating antidepressant treatment efficacy: a review of recent evidence (2021-2026).Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Turbulent-like Dynamics Predict Treatment Outcome in Major Depressive Disorder.Research square · 2025Article
59 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveDespite significant advances in neuroscience and treatment development, no widely accepted biomarkers are available to inform diagnostics or identify preferred treatments for individuals with major depressive disorder.
methodIn this critical review, the authors examine the extent to which multimodal neuroimaging techniques can identify biomarkers reflecting key pathophysiologic processes in depression and whether such biomarkers may act as predictors, moderators, and mediators of treatment response that might facilitate development of personalized treatments based on a better understanding of these processes.
resultsThe authors first highlight the most consistent findings from neuroimaging studies using different techniques in depression, including structural and functional abnormalities in two parallel neural circuits: serotonergically modulated implicit emotion regulation circuitry, centered on the amygdala and different regions in the medial prefrontal cortex; and dopaminergically modulated reward neural circuitry, centered on the ventral striatum and medial prefrontal cortex. They then describe key findings from the relatively small number of studies indicating that specific measures of regional function and, to a lesser extent, structure in these neural circuits predict treatment response in depression.
conclusionsLimitations of existing studies include small sample sizes, use of only one neuroimaging modality, and a focus on identifying predictors rather than moderators and mediators of differential treatment response. By addressing these limitations and, most importantly, capitalizing on the benefits of multimodal neuroimaging, future studies can yield moderators and mediators of treatment response in depression to facilitate significant improvements in shorter- and longer-term clinical and functional outcomes.
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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.