Ventral striatum dysfunction in children and adolescents with reactive attachment disorder: functional MRI study.

Abstract

BackgroundChild maltreatment is a major risk factor for psychopathology, including reactive attachment disorder (RAD).AimsTo examine whether neural activity during reward processing was altered in children and adolescents with RAD.MethodSixteen children and adolescents with RAD and 20 typically developing (TD) individuals performed tasks with high and low monetary rewards while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging.ResultsSignificantly reduced activity in the caudate and nucleus accumbens was observed during the high monetary reward condition in the RAD group compared with the TD group (P=0.015, family-wise error-corrected cluster level). Significant negative correlations between bilateral striatal activity and avoidant attachment were observed in the RAD and TD groups.ConclusionsStriatal neural reward activity in the RAD group was markedly decreased. The present results suggest that dopaminergic dysfunction occurs in the striatum of children and adolescents with RAD, leading towards potential future risks for psychopathology.Declaration of interestNone.Copyright and usage© The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2015. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.