Author(s)

Jichen Yang

Corresponding Author

Jichen Yang

ABSTRACT

MDD (major depressive disorder) is a serious, often chronic, and disabling mental disorder, which affects various brain areas. MDD is characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Stress model including chronic stress and early life stress could be the trigger for MDD and neurotransmitter disorder theory is the mainstream explanation of the disease. MDD would cause disfunction of the brain from different aspects. The MDD mainly affect the brain structure by neurotoxic progress, which includes multiple pathways and neurotransmitter causing the brain structural changes. Hippocampus and mPFC are the most common brain areas could be affected by the MDD, the structural changes could be found by fMRI. The review would focus on introducing mainstream models and how they affect the brain structure. At the end, this review would also involve the regular antidepressants and aspects of future study.

KEYWORDS

Major Depresive Disorder, Hippocampus, Mpfc