Structural brain abnormalities common to posttraumatic stress disorder and depression ( stress extra credit)

Marijn C W Kroes, Michael D Rugg, Matthew G Whalley, Chris R Brewin. Structural brain abnormalities common to posttraumatic stress disorder and depression Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience : JPN. Ottawa:Jul 2011. Vol. 36, Iss. 4, p. 256-265 (10 pp.)

I chose this article because I thought it was an interesting topic, looking at brain volume reductions and PTSD. The present study investigated if there were any grey matter reductions and they would be associated with PTSD or depression disorders. The experimenters also researched correlations between brain volume and self- reported measures of psycholpathology.In the experiment , the researchers used MRI of patients with PTSD , major depression and patients that were healthy that served as control subjects who had experienced some type of trauma. Each participant completed standardized self- report measures of anxiety and depression. The researchers used voxel- based morphometry , applying the Dartel algorithm within SPM5 to find associated volumetric changes in the brain. The study used participant that were right- handed and were under the age of 50. The researchers used 24 patients with PTSD , 29 with major depression and 29 control subjects . Both groups met the criteria for their specific disorder only. The control group did not have any psychiatric disorder and were not on any psychotropic medication. The MRI was used to observe changes in volume in the participants. Whole – brain structural scans were acquired using a modified driven equilibrium. Grey matter group differences were looked at using a factorial design with the groups, PTSD, major depression, and control. The results found that the disorder groups had significantly smaller volume compared to the control group, particularly in prefrontal areas. However the disorder groups did not differ from each other in brain volume. The study found that there are similarities in prefrontal areas volume reductions in patients with PTSD and those with major depression. This study’s results and research suggests that there may not be differences in brain volume in PTSD and depression and that it may be related to a depression component considering that PTSD patients often suffer from both their disorder and depression.

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