ArticleNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2018
White matter integrity in medication-free women with peripartum depression: a tract-based spatial statistics study.
Article in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neural correlates of peripartum depression: a systematic review, meta-analysis and comparison to major depressive disorder.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Structural, functional, and metabolic signatures of postpartum depression: A systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Cerebral diffusion kurtosis imaging to assess the pathophysiology of postpartum depression.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
- Adversity as the key feature: neuroimaging profiles of subtypes from multiple depression risk factors.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Understanding Depression in Women Across the Lifespan: Hormonal Insights From Brain Imaging.Brain and behavior · 2026Review
- GABAergic Neuroactive Steroids and Network States: Relevance to Peripartum Depression.Biological psychiatry · 2026Review
- Perinatal Depression: Current Knowledge.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Risky family environment, white matter organization, and effective parenting in expectant fathers.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Biomarkers of reproductive psychiatric disorders.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2025Review
- Neurobiological and Behavioral Underpinnings of Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs): A Selective Narrative Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Diffusion tensor imaging of white-matter structural features of maltreating mothers and their associations with intergenerational chain of childhood abuse.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Social support mediates the influence of cerebellum functional connectivity strength on postpartum depression and postpartum depression with anxiety.Translational psychiatry · 2022Article
- Neuroimaging and biomarker evidence of neurodegeneration in asthma.The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology · 2022Article
- Recent Neuroscience Advances in Human Parenting.Advances in neurobiology · 2022Article
- White Matter Alterations in Depressive Disorder.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- A new molecular risk pathway for postpartum mood disorders: clues from steroid sulfatase-deficient individuals.Archives of women's mental health · 2021Review
- Neurobiology of peripartum mental illness.Handbook of clinical neurology · 2021Review
- Neurobiological changes during the peripartum period: implications for health and behavior.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2020Review
- Examining the relationship between perinatal depression and neurodevelopment in infants and children through structural and functional neuroimaging research.International review of psychiatry (Abingdon, England) · 2019Article
- Brain plasticity in pregnancy and the postpartum period: links to maternal caregiving and mental health.Archives of women's mental health · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies in depression show decreased structural connectivity in the left anterior limb of the internal capsule and the genu of the corpus callosum but no such studies exist in peripartum depression (PPD), which affects 1 in 8 women. We analyzed fractional anisotropy (FA) as a measure of white matter integrity of these two tracts using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). We then conducted an exploratory whole-brain analysis to identify additional regions implicated in PPD. Seventy-five pregnant, medication-free women were evaluated with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and Structured Clinical Interview (SCID) for DSM-IV-TR in pregnancy and in the postpartum. Structural MRI and DTI sequences were acquired in forty-four women within 2-8 weeks postpartum. TBSS data were analyzed between healthy comparison postpartum women (HCW) and women who developed PPD to determine differences in white matter integrity within the left anterior limb of the internal capsule and the genu of the corpus callosum, then analyzed across participants to explore correlation between FA and the EPDS score. An exploratory whole-brain analysis was also conducted to identify other potential regions showing differences in white matter integrity between groups, as well as correlation between EPDS and FA across groups. All results were corrected for multiple comparisons and analyses conducted using FSL, p < 0.05, K > 10. In comparison to HCW, women with PPD had significantly lower FA in left anterior limb of the internal capsule (p = 0.010). FA was negatively correlated with EPDS scores in the left anterior limb of the internal capsule (p = 0.019). In the whole-brain analysis, FA in the right retrolenticular internal capsule (p = 0.03) and two clusters within the body of the corpus callosum (p = 0.044, p = 0.050) were negatively correlated with EPDS; there were no between-group differences in FA. Reduced FA in the left anterior limb of the internal capsule suggests disruption of fronto-subcortical circuits in PPD. A negative correlation between FA within the body of the corpus callosum and EPDS total score could additionally reflect disrupted interhemispheric structural connectivity in women with depressive symptoms.
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