title: Understanding heterogeneity in grey matter research of adults with childhood maltreatment-A meta-analysis and review.
abstract: Childhood trauma has been associated with long term effects on prefrontal-limbic grey matter. A literature search was conducted to identify structural magnetic resonance imaging studies of adults with a history of childhood trauma. We performed three meta-analyses. Hedges' g effect sizes were calculated for each study providing hippocampal or amygdala volumes of trauma and non-trauma groups. Seed based differential mapping was utilised to synthesise whole brain voxel based morphometry (VBM) studies. A total of 38 articles (17 hippocampus, 13 amygdala, 19 whole brain VBM) were included in the meta-analyses. Trauma cohorts exhibited smaller hippocampus and amygdala volumes bilaterally. The most robust findings of the whole brain VBM meta-analysis were reduced grey matter in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right hippocampus amongst adults with a history of childhood trauma. Subgroup analyses and meta-regressions showed results were moderated by age, gender, the cohort's psychiatric health and the study's definition of childhood trauma. We provide evidence of abnormal grey matter in prefrontal-limbic brain regions of adults with a history of childhood maltreatment.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research Unit, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia. Electronic address: casey.paquola@sydney.edu.au.
authors.forename: Casey
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Paquola
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research Unit, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
authors.forename: Maxwell R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research Unit, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia; Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience, University of the Sunshine Coast, QLD, 4558, Australia.
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lagopoulos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala; D002648:Child; D066128:Gray Matter; D006624:Hippocampus; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging
keywords: Abuse; Amygdala; Childhood trauma; Grey matter; Hippocampus; Psychiatric diagnosis; Voxel based morphometry