The present study examined the relationship between asymmetries in frontal brain activity and depression, utilizing both categorical DSM diagnoses as well as measures of depressive severity. The key findings are that: 1) CSD-referenced frontal EEG asymmetry differentiates those individuals with lifetime MDD from those without, an effect not related to current depression, and consistent with the notion that frontal asymmetry can function as an endophenotype of risk for depression; 2) EEG asymmetry derived from other reference montages — those that have been used with some frequency in the literature to produce a pattern of results that is plagued by some inconsistencies — produced a pattern of findings that suggests some degree of relationship between frontal asymmetry and depressive severity in women, but not consistently so for men.
