Gray Matter Correlates of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Quantitative Meta-Analysis
Biological Psychiatry,
Evidence Based Medicine
Kuhn S et al. – This is the first quantitative whole–brain meta–analysis showing brain structure deficits in traumatized subjects with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared with trauma–exposed healthy control subjects. The gray matter deficit profile overlaps with brain networks of emotion processing, fear extinction, and emotion regulation known to be affected in PTSD. Although the data cannot clarify if this is a predisposition or a consequence of the disease, the results may facilitate the need to control for structural characteristics in future functional brain studies.
