Changes in microstates of first-episode untreated nonsuicidal self-injury adolescents exposed to negative emotional stimuli and after receiving rTMS intervention

Background Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a common mental health threat in adolescents, peaking in adolescence with a lifetime prevalence of ~17%–60%, making it a high-risk risk factor for suicide. In this study, we compared changes in microstate parameters in depressed adolescents with NSSI, depressed adolescents, and healthy adolescents during exposure to negative emotional stimuli, and further explored the improvement of clinical symptoms and the effect of microstate parameters of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in depressed adolescents with NSSI, and more evidence was provided for potential mechanisms and treatment optimization for the occurrence of NSSI behaviors in adolescents. Methods Sixty-six patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) exhibiting NSSI behavior (MDD + NSSI group), 52 patients with MDD (MDD group), and 20 healthy subjects (HC group) were recruited to perform neutral and negative emotional stimulation task. The age range of all subjects was 12–17 years. All participants completed the Hamilton Depression Scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, the Ottawa Self-Injury Scale and a self-administered questionnaire to collect demographic information. We provided two different treatments to 66 MDD adolescents with NSSI; 31 patients received medication and completed post-treatment scale assessments and EEG acquisitions, and 21 patients received medication combined with rTMS and completed post-treatment scale assessments and EEG acquisitions. Multichannel EEG was recorded continuously from 64 scalp electrodes using the Curry 8 system. EEG signal preprocessing and analysis was performed offline, using the EEGLAB toolbox in MATLAB. Use the Microstate Analysis Toolbox in EEGLAB for segmentation and computation of microstates, and calculate a topographic map of the microstate segmentation of the EEG signal for a single subject in each dataset, and four parameters were obtained for each microstate classification: global explained variance (GEV), mean duration (Duration), average number of occurrences per second (Occurrence), and average percentage of total analysis time occupied (Coverage), which were then statistically analyzed. Results Our results indicate that MDD adolescents with NSSI exhibit abnormalities in MS 3, MS 4, and MS 6 parameters when exposed to negative emotional stimuli compared to MDD adolescents and healthy adolescents. The results also showed that medication combined with rTMS treatment improved depressive symptoms and NSSI performance more significantly in MDD adolescents with NSSI compared to medication treatment, and affected MS 1, MS 2, and MS 4 parameters in MDD adolescents with NSSI, providing microstate evidence for the moderating effect of rTMS. Conclusion MDD adolescents with NSSI showed abnormal changes in several microstate parameters when receiving negative emotional stimuli, and compared to those not receiving rTMS treatment, MDD adolescents with NSSI treated with rTMS showed more significant improvements in depressive symptoms and NSSI performance, as well as improvements in EEG microstate abnormalities.