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Mark W. Logue, Sanne J.H. van Rooij∗, Emily L. Dennis∗, Sarah L. Davis, Jasmeet P. Hayes, Jennifer S. Stevens, Maria Densmore, Courtney C. Haswell, Jonathan Ipser, Saskia B. Koch, Mayuresh Korgaonkar, Lauren A.M. Lebois, Matthew Peverill, Justin T. Baker, Premika S.W. Boedhoe, Jessie L. Frijling, Staci A. Gruber, Ilan Harpaz-Rotem, Neda Jahanshad, Sheri Koopowitz, Ifat Levy, Laura Nawijn, Lauren O’Connor, Miranda Olff, David H. Salat, Margaret A. Sheridan, Jeffrey M. Spielberg, Mirjam van Zuiden, Sherry R. Winternitz, Jonathan D. Wolff, Erika J. Wolf, Xin Wang, Kristen Wrocklage, Chadi G. Abdallah, Richard A. Bryant, Elbert Geuze, Tanja Jovanovic, Milissa L. Kaufman, Anthony P. King, John H. Krystal, Jim Lagopoulos, Ruth Lanius, Israel Liberzon, Regina E. McGlinchey, Katie A. McLaughlin, William P. Milberg, Mark W. Miller, Kerry J. Ressler, Dick J. Veltman, Dan J. Stein, Kathleen Thomaes, Paul M. Thompson, Rajendra A. Morey. Smaller Hippocampal Volume in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Multi-Site ENIGMA-PGC Study. Biological Psychiatry (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.09.006.

http://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(17)31990-X/fulltext

Background

Many studies report smaller hippocampal and amygdala volumes in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but findings have not always been consistent. Here, we present the results of a large-scale neuroimaging consortium study on PTSD conducted by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC)–Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) PTSD Working Group.

Methods

We analyzed neuroimaging and clinical data from 1868 subjects (794 PTSD patients) contributed by 16 cohorts, representing the largest neuroimaging study of PTSD to date. We assessed the volumes of eight subcortical structures (nucleus accumbens, amygdala, caudate, hippocampus, pallidum, putamen, thalamus, and lateral ventricle). We used a standardized image-analysis and quality-control pipeline established by the ENIGMA consortium.

Results

In a meta-analysis of all samples, we found significantly smaller hippocampi in subjects with current PTSD compared with trauma-exposed control subjects (Cohen’s d = −0.17, p = .00054), and smaller amygdalae (d = −0.11, p = .025), although the amygdala finding did not survive a significance level that was Bonferroni corrected for multiple subcortical region comparisons (p < .0063).

Conclusions

Our study is not subject to the biases of meta-analyses of published data, and it represents an important milestone in an ongoing collaborative effort to examine the neurobiological underpinnings of PTSD and the brain’s response to trauma.

Read the full manuscript here.

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