EEG biomarkers in major depressive disorder: Discriminative power and prediction of treatment response

Abstract

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has high population prevalence and is associated with substantial impact on quality of life, not least due to an unsatisfactory time span of sometimes several weeks from initiation of treatment to clinical response. Therefore extensive research focused on the identification of cost-effective and widely available electroencephalogram (EEG)-based biomarkers that not only allow distinguishing between patients and healthy controls but also have predictive value for treatment response for a variety of treatments. In this comprehensive overview on EEG research on MDD, biomarkers that are either assessed at baseline or during the early course of treatment and are helpful in discriminating patients from healthy controls and assist in predicting treatment outcome are reviewed, covering recent decades up to now. Reviewed markers include quantitative EEG (QEEG) measures, connectivity measures, EEG vigilance-based measures, sleep–EEG-related measures and event-related potentials (ERPs). Further, the value and limitations of these different markers are discussed. Finally, the need for integrated models of brain function and the necessity for standardized procedures in EEG biomarker research are highlighted to enhance future research in this field.

Declaration of interest: Sebastian Olbrich reports no conflict of interest. Martijn Arns reports research grants and options from Brain Resource Ltd. (Sydney, Australia) acted as a paid consultant for United BioSource Corporation (UBC) and Bracket and has been an author on 3 patent applications related to EEG and psychophysiology but does not own these patents nor has any future financial gains from these patents and these have no relation to the materials presented. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.