Acute response to psychological trauma and subsequent recovery: No changes in brain structure

Author
Szabó, C.
Lecturer

We used magnetic resonance imaging to study brain structure in acute stress disorder (ASD) following a psychological trauma and after 4 weeks in remission. Whole-brain voxel-based morphometry and FreeSurfer analysis of the hippocampal formation and amygdala revealed no structural changes in ASD (n=75) compared with trauma-exposed individuals without ASD (n=60) and community controls (n=60). These results suggest that ASD, in contrast to posttraumatic stress disorder, is not characterized by structural brain alterations. 

Szabó, C., Kelemen, O.,  Levy-Gigi, E., & Kéri, S. (2015)

Acute response to psychological trauma and subsequent recovery: No changes in brain structure.  Psychiatry Research - Neuroimaging,  231(3), 269-272. DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2015.01.005

Last Updated Date : 08/04/2019