Effects of escitalopram therapy on functional brain controllability in major depressive disorder.
Fang F., Godlewska B., Cho RY., Savitz SI., Selvaraj S., Zhang Y.
Antidepressant drugs are the mainstay of treatment for patients with major depressive disorders (MDD). Given the critical role of the underlying neural control mechanism in the physiopathology of depression, this study aims to investigate the effects of escitalopram, a type of antidepressant drug, on the changes of functional brain controllability throughout the escitalopram treatment for MDD. We collected resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 20 unmedicated major depressive patients at baseline (visit 1, pre-treatment), one week (visit 2, 1-week after the onset of the treatment) and six weeks (visit 3, after the 6-week escitalopram treatment). Our results revealed that the global average and modal controllability of MDD patients were significantly larger and smaller, respectively, compared to healthy subjects (P