The Amygdala and Depression: A Sober Reconsideration

Grogans et al discuss the report from Tamm et al which revealed null associations between amygdala reactivity to negative faces and self-reported symptoms and lifetime diagnoses. Relations between amygdala reactivity and the much stricter diagnostic questionnaire were numerically stronger and statis...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inThe American journal of psychiatry Vol. 179; no. 7; pp. 454 - 457
Main Authors Grogans, Shannon E., Fox, Andrew S., Shackman, Alexander J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Psychiatric Association 01.07.2022
Subjects
Amygdala
Biomarkers
Depression
Depressive Disorder, Major
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Medical diagnosis
Medical imaging
Medical research
Mental depression
Psychiatry
Depressive Disorders
Neuroimaging
fMRI
amygdala
internalizing disorders
depression
major depressive disorder (MDD)
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Grogans et al discuss the report from Tamm et al which revealed null associations between amygdala reactivity to negative faces and self-reported symptoms and lifetime diagnoses. Relations between amygdala reactivity and the much stricter diagnostic questionnaire were numerically stronger and statistically significant (p=0.01). The observations add to a growing body of psychiatric imaging research demonstrating that amygdala hyperreactivity and other popular candidate biomarkers explain statistically significant but quantitatively negligible amounts of disease-relevant information--risk, status, treatment response, course, and so on--in large samples. This pessimistic conclusion is hardly specific to the amygdala.
Bibliography:SourceType-Other Sources-1
content type line 63
ObjectType-Editorial-2
ObjectType-Commentary-1
ObjectType-Article-3
ISSN:0002-953X
1535-7228
DOI:10.1176/appi.ajp.20220412