Cerebral perfusion in depression: Relationship to sex, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and depression severity

•Cerebral perfusion differences may contribute to the sexual dimorphism in depression.•This relationship may be mediated by the neurosteroid dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate.•The introduction of whole-brain perfusion as a covariate lead to a decrease in the correlations between voxel-based perfusion and depression scores and to an increase in the correlation of voxel-based perfusion and the Beck‘s Anxiety Inventory score.•This suggests that the association between perfusion and depression might be a more global effect, whereas anxiety might be linked to more regional differences in perfusion.