title: Reduced cortical and subcortical volumes in female adolescents with borderline personality disorder.
abstract: Volumetric alterations in limbic structures have been detected in adults, but not in adolescents with borderline personality disorder (BPD). We examined adolescents in the early stages of BPD to provide a unique opportunity to investigate which parts of the brain are initially affected by the disorder before confounding factors such as long-term medication or chronicity can mask them. A group of 60 right-handed female adolescents between 14 and 18 years of age (20 patients with BPD, 20 clinical controls, and 20 healthy controls) underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Focus was on the examination of hippocampal and amygdalar volume differences. Furthermore, a cortical thickness analysis was conducted. FreeSurfer software detected significant group differences in the right and left hippocampus and in the right amygdala. Additionally, significant volume reductions in frontal (right middle frontal gyrus, orbital part of the inferior frontal gyrus bilaterally), and parietal regions (superior parietal gyrus bilaterally) were found in adolescents with BPD compared with controls. No group differences in cortical thickness were revealed.
authors: Section Disorders of Personality Development, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Section Quantitative Imaging-Based Disease Characterization, Department of Radiology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Julia
authors: J
authors: Richter
authors: Section Disorders of Personality Development, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Romuald
authors: R
authors: Brunner
authors: Section Disorders of Personality Development, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Parzer
authors: Section Disorders of Personality Development, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Franz
authors: F
authors: Resch
authors: Section Quantitative Imaging-Based Disease Characterization, Department of Radiology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Bram
authors: B
authors: Stieltjes
authors: Section Disorders of Personality Development, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Section Quantitative Imaging-Based Disease Characterization, Department of Radiology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany. Electronic address: Romy.Henze@med.uni-heidelberg.de.
authors: Romy
authors: R
authors: Henze
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000679:Amygdala / Q000473:pathology*; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D059906:Neuroimaging / Q000295:instrumentation; D009929:Organ Size; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D012107:Research Design
keywords: Amygdala; Borderline personality disorder; Cortical thickness; FreeSurfer; Hippocampus; Parietal cortex