Abstract
Background
Neuroimaging studies have consistently reported similar brain structural abnormalities
across different psychiatric disorders. Yet, the extent and regional distribution
of shared morphometric abnormalities between disorders remains unknown.
Methods
Here, we conducted a cross-disorder analysis of brain structural abnormalities in
6 psychiatric disorders based on effect size estimates for cortical thickness and
subcortical volume differences between healthy control subjects and psychiatric patients
from 11 mega- and meta-analyses from the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics
Through Meta Analysis) consortium. Correlational and exploratory factor analyses were
used to quantify the relative overlap in brain structural effect sizes between disorders
and to identify brain regions with disorder-specific abnormalities.
Results
Brain structural abnormalities in major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia,
and obsessive-compulsive disorder were highly correlated (r = .443 to r = .782), and one shared latent underlying factor explained between 42.3% and 88.7%
of the brain structural variance of each disorder. The observed shared morphometric
signature of these disorders showed little similarity with brain structural patterns
related to physiological aging. In contrast, patterns of brain structural abnormalities
independent of all other disorders were observed in both attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder and autism spectrum disorder. Brain regions showing high proportions of independent
variance were identified for each disorder to locate disorder-specific morphometric
abnormalities.
Conclusions
Taken together, these results offer novel insights into transdiagnostic as well as
disorder-specific brain structural abnormalities across 6 major psychiatric disorders.
Limitations comprise the uncertain contribution of risk factors, comorbidities, and
medication effects to the observed pattern of results that should be clarified by
future research.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 11, 2020
Accepted:
April 30,
2020
Received in revised form:
April 30,
2020
Received:
January 21,
2020
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 Society of Biological Psychiatry.
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- Shared Versus Disorder-Specific Brain Morphometric Features of Major Psychiatric Disorders in AdulthoodBiological PsychiatryVol. 88Issue 9
- PreviewThere have been challenges in determining shared versus disorder-specific neural markers of psychiatric illness (1). Specifically, studies must be designed with large sample sizes of individuals with heterogeneity in clinical diagnoses and symptoms. Such large-scale studies must also account for the age ranges inherent in these designs and control for features of healthy physiologic aging. Lastly, human studies have been limited by cost, access to scanners with shared acquisition features, and data sharing practices.
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