From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany (Förster, Danzer, Redlich, Opel, Grotegerd, Leehr, Dohm, Enneking, Meinert, Goltermann, Lemke, Waltemate, Thiel, Behnert, Hahn, Repple, Dannlowski); the Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany (Förster); the Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Halle, Halle, Germany (Redlich); the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany (Brosch, Stein, Meller, Ringwald, Schmitt, Steinsträter, Jansen, Krug, Nenadic, Kircher); the Core-Unit Brain Imaging, Faculty of Medicine, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany (Jansen); the Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany (Krug); and the University Clinic for Clinical Radiology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany (Kugel, Heindel).
J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2021 Apr 27;46(3):E328-E336. doi: 10.1503/jpn.200162.
Childhood maltreatment has been associated with reduced hippocampal volume in healthy individuals, whereas social support, a protective factor, has been positively associated with hippocampal volumes. In this study, we investigated how social support is associated with hippocampal volume in healthy people with previous experience of childhood maltreatment.
We separated a sample of 446 healthy participants into 2 groups using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire: 265 people without maltreatment and 181 people with maltreatment. We measured perceived social support using a short version of the Social Support Questionnaire. We examined hippocampal volume using automated segmentation (Freesurfer). We conducted a social support × group analysis of covariance on hippocampal volumes controlling for age, sex, total intracranial volume, site and verbal intelligence.
Our analysis revealed significantly lower left hippocampal volume in people with maltreatment (left F1,432 = 5.686, p = 0.018; right F1,433 = 3.371, p = 0.07), but no main effect of social support emerged. However, we did find a significant social support × group interaction for left hippocampal volume (left F1,432 = 5.712, p = 0.017; right F1,433 = 3.480, p = 0.06). In people without maltreatment, we observed a trend toward a positive association between social support and hippocampal volume. In contrast, social support was negatively associated with hippocampal volume in people with maltreatment.
Because of the correlative nature of our study, we could not infer causal relationships between social support, maltreatment and hippocampal volume.
Our results point to a complex dynamic between environmental risk, protective factors and brain structure - in line with previous evidence - suggesting a detrimental effect of maltreatment on hippocampal development.
童年期虐待与健康个体的海马体体积减小有关，而社会支持作为一种保护因素，与海马体体积呈正相关。在这项研究中，我们调查了在有童年期虐待经历的健康人群中，社会支持与海马体体积的关系。
我们使用童年创伤问卷将 446 名健康参与者分为两组：265 名无虐待组和 181 名虐待组。我们使用社会支持问卷的简短版本来测量感知到的社会支持。我们使用自动分割（Freesurfer）来测量海马体体积。我们进行了社会支持×组协方差分析，控制年龄、性别、总颅内体积、地点和言语智力，以分析海马体体积。
我们的分析显示，受虐待组的左海马体体积明显较小（左 F1,432 = 5.686，p = 0.018；右 F1,433 = 3.371，p = 0.07），但社会支持没有主效应。然而，我们确实发现左海马体体积存在显著的社会支持×组交互作用（左 F1,432 = 5.712，p = 0.017；右 F1,433 = 3.480，p = 0.06）。在无虐待组中，我们观察到社会支持与海马体体积之间存在正相关趋势。相比之下，在受虐待组中，社会支持与海马体体积呈负相关。
由于我们的研究是相关性研究，因此我们无法推断社会支持、虐待和海马体体积之间的因果关系。
我们的结果表明，环境风险、保护因素和大脑结构之间存在复杂的动态关系，这与之前的证据一致，表明虐待对海马体发育有不利影响。
