CLASSIFYING PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS USING CORTICAL HAEMODYNAMIC RESPONSES

Abstract

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common psychiatric disorder that severely impairs psychosocial functioning and diminishes quality of life. Yet, there are no reliable biomarkers to aid in the diagnosis of MDD. The objective was to validate a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) paradigm for MDD that could aid in ruling out bipolar disorder (BD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD). fNIRS was used to measure prefrontal cortex haemodynamic response during the verbal fluency task. The results suggest that normal cortical function is disrupted in MDD regardless of disorder severity, haemodynamic dysfunction is more extensive in MDD than BD or BPD and haemodynamic response can distinguish MDD from healthy controls (HCs) and BD with acceptable accuracy. By referring to the threshold values established in this research to distinguish MDD from HCs and BD, fNIRS may be used as a supplementary test in routine clinical practice to further support a diagnosis of MDD.