SynthesisMolecular psychiatry2023
Brain-wide changes in excitation-inhibition balance of major depressive disorder: a systematic review of topographic patterns of GABA- and glutamatergic alterations.
Synthesis in Molecular psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 68 papers, 2 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
68 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neurobiological insights into perinatal depression: a multi-dimensional integration of brain structure, function, and metabolism.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Glutamatergic Modulation of Brain Function in Psychosis: A Systematic Review of Neuroimaging Studies.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Pooled it
- High Dose Vitamin B6 Reduces Depression Symptoms.Depression and anxiety · 2026Trial
- Multiomic single-nucleus profiling reveals cell-type-specific epigenetic and transcriptional dysregulation in major depressive disorder brain.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Sleep Deprivation and Neuronal Hyperexcitation Share Transcriptomic Signatures.Neuropsychopharmacology reports · 2026Article
- Ethanolamine as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for depressive disorder.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Dysregulated adult hippocampal neurogenesis in major depressive disorder.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Glial-neuronal crosstalk via GABA signaling: mechanistic insights into neuropsychiatric and neurological pathophysiology.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Neuronal Cell-Specific sc-eQTL and Integrative eQTL-pQTL Mendelian Randomization Prioritize CKAP2 as a Candidate Gene for Major Depressive Disorder.Journal of molecular neuroscience : MN · 2026Observational
- Detecting neuroplastic effects induced by ketamine in healthy human subjects: A multimodal approach.Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism · 2026Article
- Unveiling the enigma of anxiety disorders and depression: from pathogenesis to treatment.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Review
- Molecular and neural circuit mechanisms of parvalbumin (PV) neurons in depression: Insights and advances.iScience · 2026Review
- Gamma and beta power and the 1/f slope vary across a spectrum of depression severity.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Ionic Homeostasis Failure in Major Depressive Disorder: Ion Channel Mechanisms, Excitation-Inhibition Imbalance, and Precision Therapeutics.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Linking GWAS risk genes to transcriptional features of major depressive disorder via in vivo Perturb-seq.Nature genetics · 2026Article
- Neuromodulation of excitation-inhibition balance in dementia with lewy bodies: a translational framework.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Review
- Neurophysiological markers of GABAergic and glutamatergic function associated with childhood adversity in adolescent depression: An exploratory transcranial magnetic stimulation study.Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry · 2026Article
- A Comparison of Positive and Negative Allosteric Modulators of α5-Containing GABABiological psychiatry · 2026Review
- A nucleus accumbens-projecting prefrontal cortex circuit underlies chronic social stress-induced depression-like behaviors.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Ketamine Dosing Across Clinical Indications: A Narrative Review Organized by Proposed NMDA-Related Mechanisms.Journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Review
8 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The excitation-inhibition (E/I) imbalance is an important molecular pathological feature of major depressive disorder (MDD) as altered GABA and glutamate levels have been found in multiple brain regions in patients. Healthy subjects show topographic organization of the E/I balance (EIB) across various brain regions. We here raise the question of whether such EIB topography is altered in MDD. Therefore, we systematically review the gene and protein expressions of inhibitory GABAergic and excitatory glutamatergic signaling-related molecules in postmortem MDD brain studies as proxies for EIB topography. Searches were conducted through PubMed and 45 research articles were finally included. We found: i) brain-wide GABA- and glutamatergic alterations; ii) attenuated GABAergic with enhanced glutamatergic signaling in the cortical-subcortical limbic system; iii) that GABAergic signaling is decreased in regions comprising the default mode network (DMN) while it is increased in lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC). These together demonstrate abnormal GABA- and glutamatergic signaling-based EIB topographies in MDD. This enhances our pathophysiological understanding of MDD and carries important therapeutic implications for stimulation treatment.
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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.