Previous studies suggest that there are brain anatomical and functional abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder(BD), major depressive disorder(MDD), and the pathogenesis of these three mental disorders may exist overlaps. However, it remains unclear whether these abnormalities can be used for the diagnosis and prediction of treatment effects in mental disorders. It is also unclear whether there are shared imaging biomarkers between these three common mental disorders. In a word, there still lacks reliable neuroimaging biomarkers in mental disorders. Based on the previous studies, this study aims to examine the whole-brain anatomical and functional abnormalities in drug-naive patients with schizophrenia ,drug-naive patients with BD, drug-naive patients with MDD and healthy controls by using a combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs, including a longitudinal study with 8 weeks of drugs treatment( schizophrenia patients are treated with one antipsychotic drug(olanzapine, risperidone; amisulpride); patients with bipolar disorder are treated with one mood stabilizer(lithium;valproate);patients with major depressive disorder are treated with paroxetine). First, neuroimaging biomarkers are definitively selected in patients with different mental disorders for the purpose of diagnosis by using a cross-sectional design. After that, a longitudinal study is conducted in patients after 8 weeks of drugs treatment to validate that the selected neuroimaging biomarkers can be used to predict treatment response of medication. The definitively selected neuroimaging biomarkers are expected to be useful for the diagnosis and prediction of treatment effects in these three mental disorders; and therefore to be helpful for understanding the pathophysiology of mental disorders.
