Changes in P300 amplitude to negative emotional stimuli correlate with treatment responsiveness to sertraline in adolescents with depression

Objective

Adolescents with depression is characterized by high rates of recurrence and functional impairment, with a significant association with suicide risk. Antidepressants are commonly prescribed to treat depression, yet few reproducible neurobiological markers for depression and antidepressant treatment response have been identified. Therefore, discovering a stable and reliable neurobiological marker holds significant value for both the clinical diagnosis and treatment of depression in adolescents.

Methods

One hundred and seven patients with major depressive disorder (MDD group, 30 males, 77 females, mean age: 14.80 years), and 25 healthy subjects (HC group, 13 males, 12 females, mean age: 15.72 years) were recruited to perform a two-choice oddball task related to negative emotional cues. All participants completed a self-administered questionnaire to gather demographic information. A trained psychiatrist administered the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD-17) to assess depression severity. Of the 107 adolescents with depression, 61 received antidepressant medication for 8 weeks, and 61 of these patients were followed up. Multichannel EEG was recorded continuously from 64 scalp electrodes using the Curry 8 system. EEG signal preprocessing and analysis was performed offline using the EEGLAB toolbox in MATLAB. The ERP component characteristics associated with emotional processing were extracted from the difference waves and statistically analyzed.

Results

Adolescents with depression exhibited significantly larger P300 amplitudes than healthy controls in response to both neutral and negative emotional cues. Following sertraline treatment, both depression scores and P300 amplitudes decreased significantly in adolescents with depression. Moreover, a strong positive correlation was observed between changes in depression scores and changes in P300 amplitude in response to negative emotional cues before and after treatment.

Conclusions

Changes in neural reactivity to negative emotional stimuli among adolescents with depression can be selectively modulated by sertraline and are significantly associated with improvements in depressive symptoms.

Significance

Changes in P300 amplitude to negative emotional stimuli significantly correlate with treatment responsiveness to sertraline in adolescents with depression.