Predicting escitalopram monotherapy response in depression: The role of anterior cingulate cortex

Neuroimaging biomarkers of treatment efficacy can be used to guide personalized treatment in major depressive disorder (MDD). Escitalopram is recommended as first-line therapy for MDD and severe depression. An interesting hypothesis suggests that the reconfiguration of dynamic brain networks might provide important insights into antidepressant mechanisms. The present study assesses whether the spatiotemporal modulation across functional brain networks could serve as a predictor of effective antidepressant treatment with escitalopram. A total of 106 first-episode, drug-naive patients and 109 healthy controls from three different multicenters underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Patients were considered as responders if they had a reduction of at least 50% in Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression scores at endpoint (>2 weeks). Multilayer modularity framework was applied on the whole brain to construct features in relation to network dynamic characters that were used for multivariate pattern analysis. Linear soft-threshold support vector machine models were used to separate responders from nonresponders. The permutation tests demonstrated the robustness of discrimination performances. The discriminative regions formed a spatially distributed pattern with anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as the hub in the default mode subnetwork. Interestingly, a significantly larger module allegiance of ACC was also found in treatment responders compared to nonresponders, suggesting high interactivities of ACC to other regions may be beneficial for the recovery after treatment. Consistent results across multicenters confirmed that ACC could serve as a predictor of escitalopram monotherapy treatment outcome, implying strong likelihood of replication in the future.