Abstract
Background
Altered brain structural connectivity has been implicated in the pathophysiology of
psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia (SZ), bipolar disorder (BD) and major
depressive disorder (MDD). However, it is unknown which part of these connectivity
abnormalities are disorder-specific and which are shared across the spectrum of psychotic
and affective disorders. We investigated common and distinct brain connectivity alterations
in a large sample (n= 1743) of SZ, BD, and MDD patients and healthy controls (HC).
Methods
This study examines diffusion-weighted-imaging-based structural connectome topology
in 720 MDD patients, 112 BD patients, 69 SZ patients and 842 healthy controls (mean
age of all subjects: 35.7 years). Graph theory-based network analysis was employed
to investigate connectome organization. Machine learning algorithms were trained to
classify groups based on their structural connectivity matrices.
Results
Groups differed significantly in the network metrics global efficiency, clustering,
present edges, and global connectivity strength with a converging pattern of alterations
between diagnoses (e.g., efficiency: HC>MDD>BD>SZ, pFDR = .028). Subnetwork analysis revealed a common core of edges that were affected across
all three disorders, but also revealed differences between disorders. Machine learning
algorithms could not discriminate between disorders, but could discriminate each diagnosis
from healthy controls. Furthermore, dysconnectivity patterns were found most pronounced
in patients with an early disease onset irrespective of diagnosis.
Conclusion
We demonstrate shared and specific signatures of structural white matter dysconnectivity
in SZ, BD, and MDD, leading to commonly reduced network efficiency. These results
demonstrate compromised brain communication across a spectrum of major psychiatric
disorders.
Key words
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Article Info
Publication History
Accepted:
May 31,
2022
Received in revised form:
May 27,
2022
Received:
November 15,
2021
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc on behalf of Society of Biological Psychiatry.
