Child abuse occurs at epidemic rates, with victims of abuse comprising a significant proportion of all child psychiatric admissions. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a common and often debilitating consequence of early child maltreatment, and currently little is known about the mechanisms that initiate and maintain the symptoms associated with this disorder. Emerging evidence in human and non-human primates suggest that the neurobiological changes associated with early stress may vary at different developmental periods. While much of the preclinical and clinical work on the effects of early stress point to the importance of the hippocampus as a key structure involved in the pathophysiology of PTSD in adults, recent findings suggest that alterations in the corpus callosum may be more prominent in juvenile samples. Consequently, in this study, assessments of the corpus callosum will be obtained using structural and diffusion tensor imaging in three groups of children: 50 maltreated children with PTSD, 50 trauma (e.g., maltreated) controls without psychopathology, and 50 normal controls with no lifetime history of intrafamilial or extrafamilial trauma and no lifetime history of psychopathology. Measures of inter-hemispheric transfer and memory function will also be obtained, together with comprehensive assessments of early trauma, social supports, current life stressors, and family loading for psychopathology. Neuroanatomical assessments will be obtained at baseline, and clinical and psychosocial assessments will be obtained at six-month intervals for two years after study intake. It is hypothesized that when compared to trauma and normal controls, maltreated children with PTSD will have reduced cross sectional area of the medial and caudal portions of the corpus callosum, and reduced fractional anisotropy in these regions (e.g., poorer integrity of white matter tracts). No changes in hippocampal volume are expected. A greater loading for anxiety and depressive disorders among first-degree relatives, an absence of positive stable supports, and exposure to ongoing stressors is expected to be associated with more severe PTSD symptomatology at intake, greater persistence of symptoms at follow-up, and more marked neuroimaging abnormalities.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH065519-02
Application #
6688343
Study Section
Biobehavioral and Behavioral Processes 3 (BBBP)
Program Officer
Rumsey, Judith M
Project Start
2002-12-04
Project End
2007-11-30
Budget Start
2003-12-01
Budget End
2004-11-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2004
Total Cost
$291,427
Indirect Cost
Name
Yale University
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
043207562
City
New Haven
State
CT
Country
United States
Zip Code
06520
Kaufman, Joan; Gelernter, Joel; Hudziak, James J et al. (2015) The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Project and Studies of Risk and Resilience in Maltreated Children. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 54:617-25
Weder, Natalie; Zhang, Huiping; Jensen, Kevin et al. (2014) Child abuse, depression, and methylation in genes involved with stress, neural plasticity, and brain circuitry. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 53:417-24.e5
Kaufman, Joan (2012) Child abuse and psychiatric illness. Biol Psychiatry 71:280-1
Kaufman, Joan; Gelernter, Joel; Kaffman, Arie et al. (2010) Arguable assumptions, debatable conclusions. Biol Psychiatry 67:e19-20; author reply e21-3
Grasso, Damion; Boonsiri, Joseph; Lipschitz, Deborah et al. (2009) Posttraumatic stress disorder: the missed diagnosis. Child Welfare 88:157-76
Weder, Natalie; Yang, Bao Zhu; Douglas-Palumberi, Heather et al. (2009) MAOA genotype, maltreatment, and aggressive behavior: the changing impact of genotype at varying levels of trauma. Biol Psychiatry 65:417-24
Jackowski, Andrea Parolin; de Araujo, Celia Maria; de Lacerda, Acioly Luiz Tavares et al. (2009) Neurostructural imaging findings in children with post-traumatic stress disorder: brief review. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 63:1-8
Masten, Carrie L; Guyer, Amanda E; Hodgdon, Hilary B et al. (2008) Recognition of facial emotions among maltreated children with high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder. Child Abuse Negl 32:139-53
Jackowski, Andrea P; Douglas-Palumberi, Heather; Jackowski, Marcel et al. (2008) Corpus callosum in maltreated children with posttraumatic stress disorder: a diffusion tensor imaging study. Psychiatry Res 162:256-61
Kaufman, Joan; Yang, Bao-Zhu; Douglas-Palumberi, Heather et al. (2007) Genetic and environmental predictors of early alcohol use. Biol Psychiatry 61:1228-34

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