Brain structure and function in adult survivors of developmental trauma with psychosis: A systematic review

Developmental trauma increases psychosis risk in adulthood and is associated with poor prognosis and treatment response. It has been proposed that developmental trauma may give rise to a distinct psychosis phenotype. Our aim was to explore this by systematically reviewing neuroimaging studies of brain structure and function in adults with psychosis diagnoses, according to whether or not they had survived developmental trauma. We registered our search protocol in PROSPERO (CRD42018105021).

We systematically searched literature databases for relevant studies published before May 2024. We identified 31 imaging studies (n = 1,761 psychosis patients, n = 1,775 healthy controls or healthy siblings).

Developmental trauma was associated with global and regional differences in gray matter; corticolimbic structural dysconnectivity; a potentiated threat detection system; dysfunction in regions associated with mentalization; and elevated striatal dopamine synthesis capacity.

These findings warrant further research to elucidate vulnerability and resilience mechanisms for psychosis in developmental trauma survivors.