A landmark brain-imaging study has found that antidepressants and even placebo treatment change the brain in partly overlapping and partly distinct ways, a step towards more personalised depression care.

The study, published in Nature Mental Health, scanned 386 patients across two large clinical trials, EMBARC and CAN-BIND-1. Participants received sertraline, escitalopram or a placebo, and their brains were imaged one to two weeks after treatment began, ScienMag reported.

The researchers found shared changes in brain connectivity across all treatment groups in areas including the visual cortex, precuneus and thalamus. But drugs also produced specific patterns of change, in the amygdala, midcingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex and cerebellum, that were seen only in a subset of patients, according to Medical Xpress.

The team, led by Xiaoyu Tong and Yu Zhang at Stanford University, said these distinct brain signatures could eventually help match patients to treatments that work for them.

The authors cautioned that much more research is needed before brain scans can guide real-world prescribing decisions for depression.