RESEARCH - Amygdala volume in patients receiving chronic steroid therapy

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Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Apr 1;63(7):705-9. Epub 2007 Nov 5.

Amygdala volume in patients receiving chronic corticosteroid therapy.

Brown ES, Woolston DJ, Frol AB.

Psychoneuroendocrine Research Program, Department of Psychiatry,

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas

75390-8849, USA.

BACKGROUND: Hippocampal volume reduction and declarative memory

deficits are reported in humans and animals exposed to exogenous

corticosteroids. The amygdala is another brain structure involved in

the stress response that has important interactions with the

hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. To our knowledge, no studies in

animals or humans have examined the impact of exogenous corticosteroid

administration on the amygdala. We assessed amygdala volume in

patients receiving chronic prescription corticosteroid therapy and

control subjects with similar medical histories not receiving

corticosteroids. METHODS: Fifteen patients on long-term prednisone

therapy and 13 control subjects of similar age, gender, ethnicity,

education, height, and medical history were assessed with magnetic

resonance imaging. Amygdala volume was manually traced and compared

between groups using a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Correlations between amygdala volume, age, and corticosteroid

dose/duration were assessed using Pearson's correlation coefficient.

RESULTS: Compared with control subjects, corticosteroid-treated

patients had significantly smaller amygdala volumes. Right amygdala

volume correlated significantly with age in control subjects and with

duration of corticosteroid therapy in patients.

CONCLUSIONS: Patients receiving chronic corticosteroid therapy had

smaller amygdala volumes than control subjects that correlated with

duration of corticosteroid therapy. These findings suggest that

corticosteroid exposure may be associated with changes in the amygdala

as well as hippocampus.

PMID: 17981265

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17981265

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