Resting-State fMRI May Help Predict Responsiveness to Psychotherapy

Despite the heterogeneous symptom presentation and complex etiology of major depressive disorder (MDD), functional neuroimaging studies have shown with remarkable consistency that dysfunction in mesocorticolimbic brain systems are central to the disorder.

Relatively less research has focused on the identification of biological markers of response to antidepressant treatment that would serve to improve the personalized delivery of empirically supported antidepressant interventions. 

In the present study, we investigated whether resting-state functional brain connectivity (rs-fcMRI) predicted response to Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression, an empirically validated psychotherapy modality designed to increase engagement with rewarding stimuli and reduce avoidance behaviors.

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