Bremner J D, Randall P, Scott T M, Bronen R A, Seibyl J P, Southwick S M, Delaney R C, McCarthy G, Charney D S, Innis R B
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Am J Psychiatry. 1995 Jul;152(7):973-81. doi: 10.1176/ajp.152.7.973.
Studies in nonhuman primates suggest that high levels of cortisol associated with stress have neurotoxic effects on the hippocampus, a brain structure involved in memory. The authors previously showed that patients with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) had deficits in short-term memory. The purpose of this study was to compare the hippocampal volume of patients with PTSD to that of subjects without psychiatric disorder.
Magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the volume of the hippocampus in 26 Vietnam combat veterans with PTSD and 22 comparison subjects selected to be similar to the patients in age, sex, race, years of education, socioeconomic status, body size, and years of alcohol abuse.
The PTSD patients had a statistically significant 8% smaller right hippocampal volume relative to that of the comparison subjects, but there was no difference in the volume of other brain regions (caudate and temporal lobe). Deficits in short-term verbal memory as measured with the Wechsler Memory Scale were associated with smaller right hippocampal volume in the PTSD patients only.
These findings are consistent with a smaller right hippocampal volume in PTSD that is associated with functional deficits in verbal memory.
对非人类灵长类动物的研究表明，与应激相关的高水平皮质醇对海马体具有神经毒性作用，海马体是参与记忆的脑结构。作者之前表明，患有与战斗相关创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的患者存在短期记忆缺陷。本研究的目的是比较PTSD患者与无精神障碍受试者的海马体体积。
采用磁共振成像测量26名患有PTSD的越南退伍军人的海马体体积，并选取22名在年龄、性别、种族、受教育年限、社会经济地位、体型和酗酒年限等方面与患者相似的对照受试者。
与对照受试者相比，PTSD患者右侧海马体体积在统计学上显著小8%，但其他脑区（尾状核和颞叶）的体积没有差异。仅在PTSD患者中，用韦氏记忆量表测量的短期言语记忆缺陷与右侧海马体体积较小有关。
这些发现与PTSD患者右侧海马体体积较小一致，且与言语记忆功能缺陷相关。
