Smoking affects global and regional brain entropy in depression patients regardless of depression: preliminary findings

Abstract

Objective: This study examines the effect of smoking on global and regional brain entropy in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), aiming to elucidate the relationship between smoking habits and brain network complexity in depression. Methods: The study enrolled 24 MDD patients, divided into smokers and non-smokers, from Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University and Istanbul Medipol University. Resting-state fMRI data were acquired and processed. The complexity of neuronal activity was assessed using dispersion entropy, with statistical significance determined by a suite of tests including Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Student's t-test, and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: The smoking cohort exhibited higher global brain entropy compared to the non-smoking group (p = 0.033), with significant differences in various brain networks, indicating that smoking may alter global brain activity and network dynamics in individuals with MDD. Conclusion: The study provides evidence that smoking is associated with increased brain entropy in MDD patients, suggesting that chronic smoking may influence cognitive and emotional networks. This underscores the importance of considering smoking history in the treatment and prognosis of MDD. The findings call for further research to understand the mechanistic links between smoking, brain entropy, and depression.