The Effects Of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury And Suicidal Ideation On White Matter Tracts Of Adolescents With Depressive Disorders

Objective: Non-suicidal self-injury(NSSI)and suicidal ideation(SI)are risk factors for adolescent suicide.It is necessary to clarify the neurobiological characteristics of changes in brain white matter fiber bundle integrity in adolescent NSSI and SI,in order to provide information for future interventions and the development of brain-based treatment plans.Method: Clinical evaluations were conducted on 86 adolescent patients with depressive disorder and 77 healthy controls to clarify the history of NSSI and SI.44 adolescent patients with depressive disorder diagnosed with NSSI were included in the NSSI group,and 40 patients were included in the SI group after evaluation(with 26 patients overlapping between the two groups).All participants underwent cranial magnetic resonance imaging to obtain DTI data.Automated fiber tract quantification was used to compare the differences in 100 equidistant nodes along the 18 fiber tracts among the three groups,and partial correlation analysis was performed between node diffusion parameters and clinical variables.Results: Compared to the healthy control group,the NSSI group exhibited significant changes in diffusion metrics in 38.89%(7/18)of fiber bundles,including the callosum forceps major,callosum forceps minor,right inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus,right inferior longitudinal fasciculus,left inferior longitudinal fasciculus,right thalamic radiation,and right uncinate fasciculus.The SI group showed significant changes in diffusion metrics in 27.78%(5/18)of fiber bundles,including the callosum forceps major,callosum forceps minor,right inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus,right inferior longitudinal fasciculus,and right thalamic radiation.In the NSSI group,16.67%(3/18)of fiber bundles showed significant partial correlations with the Ottawa Self-Injury Inventory(OSI)addiction scale(all P<0.05).In the SI group,33.33%(6/18)of fiber bundles showed significant partial correlations with the Beck Suicidal Ideation(BSI)scale(all P<0.05).Conclusion: Adolescents with depression accompanied by nonsuicidal self-injury(NSSI)and suicidal ideation(SI)exhibit widespread abnormal changes in white matter fiber tracts in the brain.Additionally,these abnormalities are associated with higher levels of self-injury addiction and suicidal ideation,respectively.