Morphologic alterations in the corpus callosum in abuse-related posttraumatic stress disorder: a preliminary study

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies in children with maltreatment-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have demonstrated smaller corpus callosum area, with the greatest magnitude of change in posterior portions of the corpus callosum. The purpose of this study was to measure corpus callosum area in adult female patients with childhood abuse-related PTSD and comparison subjects. MRI was used to measure the midsagittal area of the corpus callosum as well as subregions of the corpus callosum in 9 female subjects with abuse-related PTSD and 9 healthy female subjects. No differences were found in total area of the corpus callosum or in individual subregions, but the subregion/total area ratio was significantly smaller in posterior midbody in PTSD compared with the healthy subjects. These results suggest that relatively smaller areas of the posterior midbody of the corpus callosum are associated with childhood abuse related PTSD in adults; these findings are consistent with findings in children with abuse-related PTSD.