Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2010 Mar;35(2):126-31. doi: 10.1503/jpn.090041.
Structural and functional brain imaging studies suggest abnormalities of the amygdala and hippocampus in posttraumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder. However, structural brain imaging studies in social phobia are lacking.
In total, 24 patients with generalized social phobia (GSP) and 24 healthy controls underwent 3-dimensional structural magnetic resonance imaging of the amygdala and hippocampus and a clinical investigation.
Compared with controls, GSP patients had significantly reduced amygdalar (13%) and hippocampal (8%) size. The reduction in the size of the amygdala was statistically significant for men but not women. Smaller right-sided hippocampal volumes of GSP patients were significantly related to stronger disorder severity.
Our sample included only patients with the generalized subtype of social phobia. Because we excluded patients with comorbid depression, our sample may not be representative.
We report for the first time volumetric results in patients with GSP. Future assessment of these patients will clarify whether these changes are reversed after successful treatment and whether they predict treatment response.
结构和功能脑成像研究表明，创伤后应激障碍和重度抑郁症患者的杏仁核和海马体存在异常。然而，社交恐惧症的结构性脑成像研究尚缺乏。
共有 24 例广泛性社交恐惧症（GSP）患者和 24 名健康对照者接受了杏仁核和海马体的三维结构磁共振成像和临床调查。
与对照组相比，GSP 患者的杏仁核（13%）和海马体（8%）体积明显缩小。男性患者的杏仁核缩小具有统计学意义，但女性患者无此变化。GSP 患者右侧海马体体积较小与疾病严重程度较强显著相关。
我们的样本仅包括广泛性社交恐惧症的患者。由于我们排除了伴发抑郁的患者，因此我们的样本可能不具有代表性。
我们首次报告了 GSP 患者的容积学结果。对这些患者的进一步评估将阐明这些变化是否在成功治疗后得到逆转，以及它们是否可以预测治疗反应。
