Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. May 19, 2022; 12(5): 708-721
Published online May 19, 2022. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v12.i5.708
Changes in the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in specific frequency bands in major depressive disorder after electroconvulsive therapy
Xin-Ke Li, Hai-Tang Qiu, Jia Hu, Qing-Hua Luo
Xin-Ke Li, College of Medical Informatics, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
Hai-Tang Qiu, Qing-Hua Luo, Mental Health Center, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
Jia Hu, Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Author contributions: Li XK conducted the statistical analysis and wrote the manuscript; Qiu HT performed the study design and interpretation of findings; Luo QH recruited the patients, collected the data; Hu J revised the manuscript.
Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81901373; and the Intelligent Medicine Research Project of Chongqing Medical University, No. ZHYX202126.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the (the local ethics committee of Chongqing Medical University) Institutional Review Board (Approval No. 2020-97-2).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xin-Ke Li, PhD, Associate Professor, College of Medical Informatics, Chongqing Medical University, No. 1 Medical School Road, Chongqing 400016, China. lixinke@cqmu.edu.cn
Received: December 22, 2021
Peer-review started: December 22, 2021
First decision: March 13, 2022
Revised: March 26, 2022
Accepted: April 21, 2022
Article in press: April 21, 2022
Published online: May 19, 2022
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

The mechanism of efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for major depressive disorder (MDD) is still unclear. Intrinsic functional activities of brain networks are correlated with different frequency bands.

Research motivation

The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) at different frequency bands (slow-5 (0.01-0.027 Hz), slow-4 (0.027-0.08 Hz)) in MDD patients may be changed regularly before and after ECT.

Research objectives

To investigate the alterations of the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in slow-5 (0.01-0.027 Hz) and slow-4 (0.027-0.08 Hz) in patients with MDD after ECT.

Research methods

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and the intrinsic neural oscillations in different bands were adopted to analyze the changes in MDD patients before and after ECT.

Research results

Compared to before ECT, we found that MDD patients after ECT had a higher ALFF in the typical band in some regions such as the right middle frontal gyrus and posterior cingulate. Moreover, there were other changes in slow-5 band and slow-4 band.

Research conclusions

Our findings showed that the ALFF alterations in post-ECT patients were dependent on specific frequency bands.

Research perspectives

These changes may reveal some mechanism of efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy for major depressive disorder.