Thread by @ZivBenZion1

Are there any changes in #brain #structure during the first year following #trauma #exposure? Is there a difference between individuals who develop #chronic #PTSD and those who #recover? A quick thread about our work published today in @molpsychiatry📜🧠🧵
nature.com/articles/s4138…

Reduced #hippocampus and #amygdala volumes have been repeatedly documented in #PTSD patients. But do they reflect a #pretrauma vulnerability trait or #postexposure stress-induced atrophy?

To answer this question, we examined the association between #longitudinal #volumetric #changes of the hippocampus and the amygdala, as well as their #key #subregions, and #PTSD #symptom #trajectories during the first #14months following #trauma exposure.

We attempted to call n=4058 individuals within 14 days of #emergency #department admission following #traumatic #events (yes, that was an expensive phone bill). We conducted repeated #clinical #assessments & #MRI #scans of 100 recent #survivors at 1-, 6-, & 14-months post-trauma.

Out of 100 PTSD individuals at 1-month post-trauma, n=29 still met PTSD diagnostic criteria at 14-months (#nonRemission group), while the other 71 did not (#Remission group). We used #bayesian #multilevel #modeling analysis following inspiring work by @c_limbachia & @PessoaBrain!

We found #robust evidence for #smaller #initial #hippocampal volume in the #nonRemission group, specifically in the #subiculum and #CA1 subregions (blue). Also, #moderate evidence for #larger #initial #amygdala volume in the #nonRemission group. What about longitudinal changes?

Good question! #no time-dependent #volumetric #changes, from 1- to 6- to 14-months post-trauma, were observed across #all #participants or #between #groups. This does not support the idea of #consequential #progressive #stressrelated #atrophy during the first year post-trauma.

Overall, we suggest #volumetric #abnormalities in #specific #hippocampal #subregions as early vulnerability traits associated with non-recovery from acute PTSD. Importantly, volumes of #hippocampus & #amygdala key #subregions remain #stable during the first 14-months post-trauma!

Special thanks to the amazing postdocs in my lab (@KoremNachshon @orduek @TRSpiller), my collaborators (@RoeeAdmon @nimrodke1 Israel Liberzon Arieh Shalev), my current supervisors at @YaleMed (@harpaz_l @PTSDStressLab @ifat_levy @YaleDecisionLab), and @HendlerLab at @TelAvivUni!

Read the full paper here: rdcu.be/cX80E