Early-life adversity and orbitofrontal and cerebellar volumes in adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder : voxel-based morphometry study.

• BACKGROUND: Early-life adversity is a risk for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but the impact at the neural level is less clear.AIMS: To investigate the association between brain volumes and early-life adversity in individuals with a diagnosis of OCD only.METHOD: The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-28) was used to assess early-life adversity in 21 participants with OCD and 25 matched healthy controls. The relationship between global and regional brain volume and early-life adversity was measured using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). All data were corrected for multiple comparisons using family-wise error (FWE) at P<0.05.RESULTS: In the OCD group, correlations with total CTQ scores were positively associated with a larger right orbitofrontal cortex volume. Physical neglect was higher in the OCD group than in controls and was positively associated with larger right cerebellum volume in the OCD group only.CONCLUSIONS: Larger brain volumes may reflect underlying developmental neuropathology in adults with OCD who also have experience of childhood trauma.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper -- Neurovetenskaper (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Basic Medicine -- Neurosciences (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)