SynthesisBrain imaging and behavior2023
Brain-based Sex Differences in Depression: A Systematic Review of Neuroimaging Studies.
Synthesis in Brain imaging and behavior, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 3 of them syntheses 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
47 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- Structural connectivity abnormalities in suicidal thoughts and behaviours: a meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- The Relationship between Interparental Conflict and Depressive symptoms Spanning from Childhood to Youth: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2025Pooled it
- The research progress on effective connectivity in adolescent depression based on resting-state fMRI.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Incomplete network restoration may be associated with higher relapse risk in women with major depressive disorder.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2026Article
- Parental Attachment and Mental Health Literacy in Young Adults: The Mediational Role of Emotional Regulation on Well-Being and Psychopathological.Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2026Article
- Sex-stratified insights into the genetics of brain volumes in late adulthood.Biology of sex differences · 2026Article
- Altered reward-related resting-state network properties in adolescent cannabis use and depression.Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry · 2026Article
- Sex-specific alterations of intrinsic brain activity and functional connectivity in adolescent obsessive-compulsive disorder.Medical & biological engineering & computing · 2026Article
- Sex Differences in Depression: Adult Cytogenesis as Potential Target for Precision Psychiatry.Cells · 2026Review
- Association Between Patient Health Questionnaire-4 Composite Score and Depression Diagnoses in a Free Clinic Setting: Pooled Cross-sectional Study.Community mental health journal · 2026Article
- Neural Responses to Affective Sentences Reveal Signatures of Depression.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Divergent prefrontal activation between genders in depression during verbal fluency task: evidence from a large-scale fNIRS study.Annals of general psychiatry · 2026Article
- Coronary Endothelial Dysfunction Is Associated With Major Depressive Disorder in Men With Chest Pain and Nonobstructive Coronary Artery Disease.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2026Article
- Applying machine-learning and deep-learning to predict depression from brain MRI and identify depression-related brain biology.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Learning optimal early decision treatment rules with multi-domain intermediate outcomes.Biometrics · 2026Article
- Daytime lighting conditions alter home-cage behavior across both sexes in diurnal grass rats.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Association of Psychiatric Disorder Comorbidities With Global and Orbital Ablative Surgeries: A Real-World Retrospective Cohort Study.Psychiatry investigation · 2026Article
- Core Circadian Protein BMAL1: Implication for Nervous System Functioning and Its Diseases.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Gender differences in symptom profiles of individuals being treated for mood disorders.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2025Article
- Sex differences in brain network functional connectivity and their association with gene expression profiles in major depressive disorder: a REST-meta-MDD project-based study.Brain imaging and behavior · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common psychiatric illness with a wide range of symptoms such as mood decline, loss of interest, and feelings of guilt and worthlessness. Women develop depression more often than men, and the diagnostic criteria for depression mainly rely on female patients' symptoms. By contrast, male depression usually manifests as anger attacks, aggression, substance use, and risk-taking behaviors. Various studies have focused on the neuroimaging findings in psychiatric disorders for a better understanding of their underlying mechanisms. With this review, we aimed to summarize the existing literature on the neuroimaging findings in depression, separated by male and female subjects. A search was conducted on PubMed and Scopus for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI (fMRI), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies of depression. After screening the search results, 15 MRI, 12 fMRI, and 4 DTI studies were included. Sex differences were mainly reflected in the following regions: 1) total brain, hippocampus, amygdala, habenula, anterior cingulate cortex, and corpus callosum volumes, 2) frontal and temporal gyri functions, along with functions of the caudate nucleus and prefrontal cortex, and 3) frontal fasciculi and frontal projections of corpus callosum microstructural alterations. Our review faces limitations such as small sample sizes and heterogeneity in populations and modalities. But in conclusion, it reflects the possible roles of sex-based hormonal and social factors in the depression pathophysiology.
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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.