Brain integrity and cerebral atrophy in Vietnam combat veterans with and without posttraumatic stress disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with decreased hippocampal volume, but the relationship between trauma and brain morphology in the absence of PTSD is less clear. In this study, measures of brain integrity were determined by estimating gray and white matter regional brain volumes using structural magnetic resonance imaging in six patients with PTSD and in five controls with comparable trauma exposure but without clinical evidence of PTSD. The only statistically significant volume difference between groups was observed multivariately in the white matter of the right temporal lobe (superior temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, white-matter stem, middle temporal gyrus, and inferior temporal gyrus), although small sample sizes limit the power to detect between-group differences. Both groups showed heterogeneity in cerebral atrophy.