Reduced ventromedial prefrontal cortex volume and impaired attention associated with past suicide attempts in patients with mood disorders

IF 3.2 2区医学 Q1 PSYCHIATRY

Journal of psychiatric research Pub Date : 2025-09-26 DOI:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.09.040

Helena Andreu , Kamilla Woznica Miskowiak , Julian Macoveanu , Lars Vedel Kessing , Eduard Vieta , Gitte Moos Knudsen , Vibe G. Frokjaer , Anjali Sankar

{"title":"Reduced ventromedial prefrontal cortex volume and impaired attention associated with past suicide attempts in patients with mood disorders","authors":"Helena Andreu , Kamilla Woznica Miskowiak , Julian Macoveanu , Lars Vedel Kessing , Eduard Vieta , Gitte Moos Knudsen , Vibe G. Frokjaer , Anjali Sankar","doi":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.09.040","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Introduction</h3><div>Patients with mood disorders, including bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are at heightened risk of suicidal behavior. Therefore, there is an urgent need for biomarkers to enable enhanced prevention approaches in high-risk individuals. Among potential biomarkers, brain structural measures and cognitive function are particularly promising.</div></div><div><h3>Objectives</h3><div>This study aims to replicate the role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in suicidal behavior across patients with mood disorders (MD) and to examine cognitive domains that may be impaired in this population.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Data on prior suicide attempts (SA) were obtained from the Danish Registers in a sample of 307 patients with MD who had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data (22 patients with MD and SA [MD<sub>SA</sub>], 285 patients with MD and no SA [MD<sub>NSA</sub>]) and an overlapping sample of 489 patients with neurocognitive assessments (31 MD<sub>SA</sub>, 458 MD<sub>NSA</sub>).</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>MD<sub>SA</sub> showed lower vmPFC volume compared to MD<sub>NSA</sub> (p = 0.04). Secondarily, it was found that MD<sub>SA</sub> show greater attention deficits in comparison with MD<sub>NSA</sub> (p = 0.03), with no significant differences in the other neurocognitive functions.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>Reduced vmPFC volume and deficits in attention may be associated with history of suicidal behaviors in patients with MD. These findings support previous research highlighting the role of vmPFC in suicidal behavior and suggest that there may be specific cognitive subdomains that are particularly affected, offering potential intervention targets for future evaluation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16868,"journal":{"name":"Journal of psychiatric research","volume":"191 ","pages":"Pages 501-506"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of psychiatric research","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002239562500562X","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Introduction

Patients with mood disorders, including bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are at heightened risk of suicidal behavior. Therefore, there is an urgent need for biomarkers to enable enhanced prevention approaches in high-risk individuals. Among potential biomarkers, brain structural measures and cognitive function are particularly promising.

Objectives

This study aims to replicate the role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in suicidal behavior across patients with mood disorders (MD) and to examine cognitive domains that may be impaired in this population.

Methods

Data on prior suicide attempts (SA) were obtained from the Danish Registers in a sample of 307 patients with MD who had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data (22 patients with MD and SA [MD_SA], 285 patients with MD and no SA [MD_NSA]) and an overlapping sample of 489 patients with neurocognitive assessments (31 MD_SA, 458 MD_NSA).

Results

MD_SA showed lower vmPFC volume compared to MD_NSA (p = 0.04). Secondarily, it was found that MD_SA show greater attention deficits in comparison with MD_NSA (p = 0.03), with no significant differences in the other neurocognitive functions.

Conclusions

Reduced vmPFC volume and deficits in attention may be associated with history of suicidal behaviors in patients with MD. These findings support previous research highlighting the role of vmPFC in suicidal behavior and suggest that there may be specific cognitive subdomains that are particularly affected, offering potential intervention targets for future evaluation.

查看原文本刊更多论文

情绪障碍患者既往自杀企图与腹内侧前额叶皮质体积减少和注意力受损有关。

导读：情绪障碍患者，包括双相情感障碍（BD）和重度抑郁症（MDD），有较高的自杀行为风险。因此，迫切需要生物标记物来增强高危人群的预防方法。在潜在的生物标志物中，大脑结构测量和认知功能尤其有希望。目的：本研究旨在复制腹内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）在情绪障碍（MD）患者自杀行为中的作用，并检查这一人群中可能受损的认知领域。方法：从丹麦登记的307例MD患者样本中获得自杀未遂（SA）的数据，这些患者有磁共振成像（MRI）数据（22例MD合并SA [MDSA]， 285例MD合并无SA [MDNSA]），以及重叠的489例神经认知评估患者样本（31例MDSA， 458例MDNSA）。结果：MDSA组vmPFC体积低于MDNSA组（p = 0.04）。其次，我们发现MDSA与MDNSA相比有更大的注意力缺陷（p = 0.03），而其他神经认知功能无显著差异。结论：vmPFC体积减少和注意力缺陷可能与MD患者的自杀行为史有关。这些发现支持了先前强调vmPFC在自杀行为中的作用的研究，并表明可能存在特定的认知子域受到特别影响，为未来评估提供了潜在的干预目标。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of psychiatric research 医学-精神病学

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

2.10%

发文量

622

审稿时长

130 days

期刊介绍： Founded in 1961 to report on the latest work in psychiatry and cognate disciplines, the Journal of Psychiatric Research is dedicated to innovative and timely studies of four important areas of research: (1) clinical studies of all disciplines relating to psychiatric illness, as well as normal human behaviour, including biochemical, physiological, genetic, environmental, social, psychological and epidemiological factors; (2) basic studies pertaining to psychiatry in such fields as neuropsychopharmacology, neuroendocrinology, electrophysiology, genetics, experimental psychology and epidemiology; (3) the growing application of clinical laboratory techniques in psychiatry, including imagery and spectroscopy of the brain, molecular biology and computer sciences;