Background: Using a newly reported regional homogeneity (ReHo) approach, we were to explore the features of brain activity of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) in resting state, and further to examine the relationship between abnormal brain activity of depressed patients and specific symptom clusters derived from ratings on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD).
Methods: 22 patients with MDD and 22 gender-, age-, and education-matched healthy subjects participated in the fMRI scans.
Limitation: The influence of antidepressant medication to the brain activity of depressed patients was not fully excluded.
Conclusions: Our findings indicated abnormal brain activity was distributed extensively in depressed patients during resting state, and some symptom domains of depression are separately related to specific abnormal patterns of brain activity.