Childhood adversity modulates structural brain changes in borderline personality but not in major depression disorder.
Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging
; 340: 111803, 2024 Jun.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38460393
ABSTRACT
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) negatively affect the function and structure of emotion brain circuits, increasing the risk of various psychiatric disorders. It is unclear if ACEs show disorder specificity with respect to their effects on brain structure. We aimed to investigate whether the structural brain effects of ACEs differ between patients with major depression (MDD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD). These disorders share many symptoms but likely have different etiologies. To achieve our goal, we obtained structural 3T-MRI images from 20 healthy controls (HC), 19 MDD patients, and 18 BPD patients, and measured cortical thickness and subcortical gray matter volumes. We utilized the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) questionnaire to quantify self-reported exposure to childhood trauma. Our findings suggest that individuals with MDD exhibit a smaller cortical thickness when compared to those with BPD. However, ACEs showed a significantly affected relationship with cortical thickness in BPD but not in MDD. ACEs were found to be associated with thinning in cortical regions involved in emotional behavior in BPD, whereas HC showed an opposite association. Our results suggest a potential mechanism of ACE effects on psychopathology involving changes in brain structure. These findings highlight the importance of early detection and intervention strategies.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Transtorno da Personalidade Borderline
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Transtorno Depressivo Maior
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Experiências Adversas da Infância
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article