Review of the brain areas activated in fMRI after escitalopram antidepressant treatment inpatients with major depressive disorder

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the altered brain areas activated in functional magnetic resonance imaging before and after escitalopram antidepressant treatment in patients with major depressive disorder. Functional magnetic resonance studies showed abnormal activity in brain regions such as prefrontal cortex， cingulate cortex and striatum in patients prior to treatment， meantime， the abnormal activation of anterior cingulate， dorsolateral prefrontal and thalamus reflected the outcomes of escitalopram antidepressant therapy. Following the treatment with escitalopram， the fMRI activation of brain areas returned to normal， and those changes were significantly correlated with the improvement of depressive symptoms. So this paper provides a review of the brain functional activity changes in patients with major depressive disorder before treatment and at different time point of medication， as well as the correlation between altered brain functional activity and clinical symptoms.