Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Behav Neurosci. 2021 Feb;135(1):71-78. doi: 10.1037/bne0000419.
The hippocampus and amygdala play an important role in the pathophysiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In fact, chronic PTSD has been consistently linked to reductions in hippocampal and amygdala volume. However, the acute impact posttraumatic stress has on the volume of these brain regions has received limited attention. Determining the acute impact posttraumatic stress has on brain volume may improve our understanding of the development of PTSD. Therefore, the present study recruited participants acutely (i.e., ∼1-month posttrauma) following trauma exposure and examined the relationship between brain volume (assessed at ∼1-month posttrauma) and posttraumatic stress symptoms (assessed at ∼1 and >3-months posttrauma) to determine whether brain volume was associated with acute posttraumatic stress symptom expression. Twenty-one trauma-exposed (TE) patients and 19 nontrauma-exposed (NTE) controls were recruited for the present study. Brain volume was assessed by structural magnetic resonance imaging completed during the ∼1-month assessment. Left hippocampal volumes were smaller in TE than NTE participants. Among TE participants, bilateral hippocampal volumes decreased as the number of days posttrauma increased. Further, bilateral hippocampal volumes varied negatively with the severity of posttraumatic stress symptoms at ∼1-month posttrauma. The present findings suggest that there is a progressive decrease in hippocampal volume acutely (e.g., within approximately 1 month) following trauma exposure, and demonstrates that acutely assessed hippocampal volumes vary with posttraumatic stress symptom expression. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
海马体和杏仁核在创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的病理生理学中起着重要作用。事实上，慢性 PTSD 一直与海马体和杏仁核体积减小有关。然而，创伤后应激对这些大脑区域体积的急性影响受到的关注有限。确定创伤后应激对大脑体积的急性影响可能有助于我们更好地理解 PTSD 的发展。因此，本研究在创伤后约 1 个月（即急性阶段）招募了参与者，并检查了大脑体积（在创伤后约 1 个月评估）与创伤后应激症状（在创伤后约 1 个月和>3 个月评估）之间的关系，以确定大脑体积是否与急性创伤后应激症状的表达有关。本研究共招募了 21 名创伤暴露（TE）患者和 19 名非创伤暴露（NTE）对照者。大脑体积通过在约 1 个月评估期间完成的结构磁共振成像进行评估。TE 患者的左侧海马体体积小于 NTE 参与者。在 TE 参与者中，随着创伤后天数的增加，双侧海马体体积减小。此外，双侧海马体体积与创伤后约 1 个月时的创伤后应激症状严重程度呈负相关。本研究结果表明，创伤后约 1 个月内（例如，约 1 个月内），海马体体积会出现进行性减小，并且表明急性评估的海马体体积与创伤后应激症状的表达有关。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2021 APA，保留所有权利）。
