HMS Scholarly Articles

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This collection provides open access to peer reviewed scholarly articles authored or co-authored by faculty, staff, and students of the Harvard Medical School. All material in the repository is also harvested by search engines (such as Google Scholar) and Open Archives Initiative data harvesters.

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Author: search.filters.author.Pitman, RogerEnd date: 1999Item Type: PublicationHas files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.stress disorders

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    Magnetic resonance imaging study of hippocampal volume in chronic, combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder

    (Elsevier BV, 1996) Gurvits, Tamara V.; Shenton, Martha; Hokama, Hiroto; Ohta, Hirokazu; Lasko, Natasha; Gilbertson, Mark; Orr, Scott; Kikinis, Ron; Jolesz, Ferenc; McCarley, Robert William; Pitman, Roger

    This study used quantitative volumetric magnetic resonance imaging techniques to explore the neuroanatomic correlates of chronic, combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in seven Vietnam veterans with PTSD compared with seven nonPTSD combat veterans and eight normal nonveterans. Both left and right hippocampi were significantly smaller in the PTSD subjects compared to the Combat Control and Normal subjects, even after adjusting for age, whole brain volume, and lifetime alcohol consumption. There were no statistically significant group differences in intracranial cavity, whole brain, ventricles, ventricle:brain ratio, or amygdala. Subarachnoidal cerebrospinal fluid was increased in both veteran groups. Our finding of decreased hippocampal volume in PTSD subjects is consistent with results of other investigations which utilized only trauma-unexposed control groups. Hippocampal volume was directly correlated with combat exposure, which suggests that traumatic stress may damage the hippocampus. Alternatively, smaller hippocampi volume may be a pre-existing risk factor for combat exposure and/or the development of PTSD upon combat exposure.