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Advances in multimodal neuroimaging research on depressed patients with non-suicidal self-injury
LUO Xinyu  LIU Heng 

DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2026.05.021.


[Abstract] The comorbidity of depression and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a prominent clinical issue. The prevalence of depression is increasing annually, imposing a substantial social burden; the incidence of NSSI is extremely high among patients with depression, exceeding 50% particularly in adolescents with depression. Currently, there is a lack of systematic and comprehensive treatment approaches for patients with depression with non-suicidal self-injury (nsMDD), primarily because the mechanisms underlying the occurrence of NSSI behavior in depressed individuals remain unclear. In addition, neuroimaging research on nsMDD is still in the preliminary exploratory stage, facing challenges such as the difficulty of cross-sectional designs in distinguishing susceptibility markers from behavioral consequences, concentration of samples on adolescents, and insufficient multimodal integration. This article systematically reviews the progress of neuroimaging techniques in patients with nsMDD, summarizes the applications and findings from single-modal to multimodal magnetic resonance imaging, explores abnormalities in core brain regions and associated neural circuit mechanisms, aims to deepen the understanding of the neuropathological mechanisms of nsMDD from an imaging perspective, and provides perspectives on future research directions, with the goal of offering references for the development of more targeted intervention strategies.
[Keywords] depression；non-suicidal self-injury；magnetic resonance imaging；multimodal magnetic resonance imaging；neuroimaging

LUO Xinyu   LIU Heng*  

Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Medical imaging in Guizhou Higher Education Institutions, Medical imaging Center of Guizhou Province, Zunyi 563000, China

Corresponding author: LIU H, E-mail: zmcliuh@163.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2026-02-14
Accepted  2026-04-17
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2026.05.021
DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2026.05.021.

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