Recent Advances on the Multimodal Search for Markers of Treatment Response in Affective Disorders: From Bench to Bedside?

In recent years, many advances have been made in discovering the various molecular, structural and physiological alterations occurring in Major Depression and other affective disorders. Although efficient psycho- and pharmacotherapies are available and an increasing number of treatments are performed according to guidelines, a large proportion of patients nonetheless show no or only partial response to these interventions. Hence, intensified research is necessary to better understand the pathomechanisms and courses of affective disorders. To discover biomarkers for affective disorders and response predictors to antidepressant and antimanic interventions would be a milestone towards personalized medicine and treatment decisions tailored to the respective patients’ needs in contrast to the current trial-and-error approaches.

This Research Topic shall aim to give an update on state-of-the-art research concerning response prediction in affective disorders, with a main focus on Major Depression. We welcome both original and review articles focussing on neurobiological parameters with the potential to help forecasting the outcome of therapeutic interventions in affective disorders as well as on markers that are related to symptom severities or the course of the disease. Submission is open for all biological parameters, particularly when embedded in multimodal approaches which integrate the translational combination of neuro-inflammatory agents, electroencephalographic or structural parameters. Concerning therapy, contributions may include guideline-based psycho- or pharmacotherapeutic interventions as much as experimental pharmacotherapies or psychotherapeutic approaches.