Unveiling the interoception impairment in various major depressive disorder stages

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) pathophysiology involves complex emotional, physical, and cognitive factors.
• Interoception, the sense of the body's internal state, is underexplored in MDD.
• Early indicators are crucial for understanding and managing MDD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate interoception's potential in transforming MDD clinical practices.
• To examine interoception deficits across various MDD stages.
• To analyze associations between interoception and depressive symptoms.

Main Methods:

• Included 431 healthy controls, 206 subclinical depression individuals, and 483 MDD patients.
• Assessed depressive symptoms using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9).
• Evaluated interoception function with the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness, Version 2 (MAIA-2).

Main Results:

• Interoception dysfunction was present in the preclinical phase of MDD and worsened in the clinical stage.
• Antidepressant therapies had limited efficacy in improving interoception and may negatively impact certain dimensions.
• Interoceptive dimensions predicted depressive symptoms, particularly negative thinking patterns.
• A predictive model based on interoception showed good performance in identifying MDD.

Conclusions:

• Early interoception alterations in the preclinical stage are significant in MDD.
• Multivariate associations between interoception and depressive symptoms are evident.
• Interoception demonstrates good predictive performance for MDD, suggesting a paradigm shift in diagnosis and treatment.