Grey matter reduction associated with posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic stress.
In recent decades, many imaging studies have reported brain structural alterations in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, due to differences in the selection of control subjects, it is difficult to conclude whether the observed alterations were related to disease or traumatic stress. The present study was to provide a quantitative voxelwise meta-analysis of grey matter (GM) changes in PTSD relative to either trauma-exposed controls without PTSD (TEC) or non-traumatised healthy controls (HC) separately and to conduct a systematic review of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) studies that compared trauma-exposed individuals with HC to explore the effect of traumatic stress. GM reduction was identified in the medial prefrontal cortex in PTSD compared to both TEC and HC. Additional GM reduction was also observed in PTSD in the left hippocampus, left middle temporal gyrus and right superior frontal gyrus compared with TEC. Additionally, GM decreased in the left occipital cortex in PTSD compared with HC. The present study delimited the significant differences among VBM results in PTSD research when different control groups were chosen.
Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, PR China.
Lei
L
Li
Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, PR China.
Min
M
Wu
Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, PR China.
Yi
Y
Liao
Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas South Western Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75235, United States.
Luo
L
Ouyang
Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, PR China.
Mingying
M
Du
Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, PR China.
Du
D
Lei
Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, PR China.
Lizhou
L
Chen
Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, PR China.
Li
L
Yao
Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, PR China. Electronic address: julianahuang@163.com.
Xiaoqi
X
Huang
Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, PR China. Electronic address: qiyonggong@hmrrc.org.cn.
Qiyong
Q
Gong
D000818:Animals; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology
Activation likelihood estimation (ALE); Meta-analysis; Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Trauma; Voxel-based morphometry (VBM)