Long-term white matter changes in patients who develop severe depression after multiple COVID-19 infections: a 3–6-month study

作者：Yuanyuan Cui, Yihao Wang, Li Lu, Youhan Zhang, Qingyang Yu, Shuwen Dong, Yajing Wang, Yongying Liu, Guoxing Dong, Jiankun Dai, Yonghai Bai, Yi Xiao, Shiyuan Liu · 发表于：Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.21037/qims-24-2168 · 被引用次数：2 · 研究领域：Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications、Long-Term Effects of COVID-19、COVID-19 and Mental Health

Background: The white matter (WM) of patients who suffer from depression after long-term coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) showed a dynamic change. However, to date, no research on the dynamic change in the WM of patients who develop severe depression after multiple COVID-19 infections has been conducted. This study aimed to evaluate long-term WM changes in patients who experience mild or moderate depression after their first COVID-19 infection followed by severe depression after their second infection. Methods: In total, 27 outpatients who developed severe depression after two COVID-19 infections (the patient group) and 28 outpatients who developed mild or moderate depression after one COVID-19 infection (the control group) were included in this prospective study. Psychological assessments for depression, anxiety, and insomnia were conducted 3-6 months after infection. Diffusion tensor imaging was performed. The fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity were calculated and compared between the groups. The correlations between the psychological scores and image parameters were analyzed. Results: <0.05). All the psychological scores were negatively mildly to moderately correlated with the FA values of the above-mentioned WM tracts (r=-0.491, r=-0.570, and r=-0.355, P<0.001, P<0.001, and P=0.008). Conclusions: The present study revealed impairments in the WM integrity of patients who developed severe depression within 3-6 months o...