Abnormal spontaneous neural activity as a potential predictor of early treatment response in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Background: We aimed to explore the value of early improvement in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) along with potential imaging changes after treatment with paroxetine in building diagnostic models and predicting treatment response. Methods: The clinical symptoms of patients with OCD were assessed at baseline and post-treatment (four weeks). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, fractional amplitudes of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) indicator, support vector machine (SVM), support vector regression (SVR), and correlation analysis were performed to acquire and analyze the data. Results: In comparison with healthy controls, OCD patients at baseline had abnormal fALFF in several brain regions. The abnormal fALFF in the left precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) (r =-0.526, p = 0.001) and right middle cingulate cortex (MCC) (r =-0.588, p < 0.001) were negatively correlated with the severity of compulsions. Patients with OCD showed significantly clinical improvement along with significantly decreased fALFF in the left precuneus after treatment. The SVM analysis showed that the classifier had an accuracy of 90.00% based on the fALFF in the right precentral gyrus and right MCC at baseline. The SVR analysis showed that the actual remission of OCD was positively correlated with the predicted remission based on the fALFF in the left precuneus/PCC and right MCC at baseline. Limitations: This monocentric study with the relatively small sample size might restrict the generalizability of the results to other centers. Conclusions: Abnormal spontaneous neural activities in patients with OCD could serve as potential neuroimaging biomarkers for diagnosis and prediction of early treatment response.

Automated summary

This study aimed to explore the value of early improvement in OCD patients after treatment with paroxetine and analyze potential imaging changes. The study found abnormal brain activities in OCD patients at baseline, and significantly decreased fALFF in the left precuneus after treatment. By analyzing fALFF, diagnostic models can be built and treatment response can be predicted.