Altered Gray Matter Volume and Its Correlation With PTSD Severity in Chinese Earthquake Survivors.

Xiaoyu Zhang,Wencai Zhang,Jianxin Zhang,Li Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00629

Abstract

Objective: To detect the changes of gray matter volume (GMV) and their correlation with severity of symptom in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who were defined with updated DSM-5 diagnostic criteria.Method: 71 participants were assigned into PTSD group (n = 35) or trauma-exposed control (TEC) group (n = 36) with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Voxel-based morphometry analysis was used to detect alterations in GMV in the PTSD group.Results: We found that the PTSD group had larger GMV in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and in the right dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), and smaller GMV in the region of the right temporal pole (TP) than the TEC group. We also found that PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) scores correlated positively with the left MTG and right dmPFC GMV, and negatively with left TP GMV. These correlations were consistent with the findings of the between-group comparisons.Conclusions: GMV alterations in the MTG, dmPFC, and TP are detected in the group comparisons and correlated with symptom severity when classifying PTSD individuals according to DSM-5 diagnostic criteria within an earthquake-exposed population.

Highlights

More than 70% of the people worldwide experience a traumatic event at some time in their lives, and 31% experience four or more events [1]
We focus on identifying the altered gray matter volume (GMV) of brain regions when classifying post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) individuals according to DSM-5 diagnostic criteria within an earthquake-exposed population
There were no significant differences between the PTSD and trauma-exposed controls (TEC) groups in terms of age, gender, level of education, trauma scores, or total intracranial volume, but there were significant differences in the depression and PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) scores

Summary

Introduction

More than 70% of the people worldwide experience a traumatic event at some time in their lives, and 31% experience four or more events [1]. The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the first year of the occurrence of natural disasters has been documented to range from ∼5 to 60% [2]. Several meta-analysis studies found abnormal anatomy of gray matter in regions including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) or anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), hippocampus, amygdala, middle temporal gyrus (MTG), temporal pole (TP), insula, and occipital cortex [3,4,5]; the medial PFC has been implicated most frequently in previous studies. It can be divided into a more ventral portion (ventromedial prefrontal cortex, vmPFC) with a regulatory role in emotional processing

Methods

Results

Conclusion