Association between striatal gray matter volume and suicidal ideation in patients with major depressive disorder:...

Suicidal ideation (SI) is a common complication of major depressive disorder (MDD), but its neural mechanisms remain unclear. Striatum (STR) is abnormal in patients with MDD and may serve as a biomarker for SI. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of gray matter volume (GMV) as a biomarker of SI, for which no similar study exists.

Based on the REST-meta-MDD project, this study included 235 healthy controls (HCs) and 246 MDD patients, of whom 123 had SI and 123 did not. We analyzed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data using two-sample t-tests and Pearson's correlation. Analyses were corrected for multiple testing using 1000 permutations and threshold-free cluster enhancement (TFCE) correction. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD).

GMV in the right STR of MDD patients was significantly smaller than that of HCs (p < 0.05). GMV in the right STR was higher in MDD patients with SI than in those without SI, and this difference remained significant after adjustment for multiple covariates (p < 0.05). GMV in bilateral STR was associated with SI, and SI was included in the regression equation for SI-related GMV in all clusters (p < 0.05).

Our study suggests a statistically significant correlation between GMV in STR and SI, suggesting that this structural feature may be valuable for studying SI in MDD patients.