Identifying and validating subtypes within major psychiatric disorders based on frontal-posterior functional
Miao Chang1, Fay Y Womer2, Xiaohong Gong3
1Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
Molecular Psychiatry
|October 2, 2020
Summary
Researchers identified two subtypes of major psychiatric disorders (MPDs) based on brain activity patterns. This discovery of distinct functional brain imbalances could lead to more personalized psychiatric treatments.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Genetics
Background:
- Major psychiatric disorders (MPDs) share etiological and pathophysiological traits.
- Understanding the neurobiology of the psychotic-affective spectrum is key for biological diagnosis and treatment development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify subtypes within a trans-diagnostic sample of MPDs using ensemble clustering.
- To explore the neurobiological underpinnings of these subtypes.
Main Methods:
- Utilized whole-brain amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) for feature extraction in 944 participants (581 MPD patients, 363 healthy controls).
- Applied ensemble clustering to identify distinct patient subgroups.
Main Results:
- Identified two MPD subtypes with differing frontal-posterior brain functional imbalance: Archetypal MPDs (increased frontal/decreased posterior ALFF) and Atypical MPDs (decreased frontal/increased posterior ALFF).
- Archetypal MPDs showed associated alterations in cortical thickness, white matter integrity, polygenic risk, and gene expression.
- Medicated Archetypal MPDs had lower symptom severity than unmedicated counterparts, unlike Atypical MPDs.
Conclusions:
- Frontal-posterior functional imbalance, measured by ALFF, serves as a novel trans-diagnostic biomarker for MPD subtypes.
- These findings support the potential for precision medicine in psychiatry by differentiating MPD subtypes.
