6 research outputs found
The thalamus and its subnuclei—a gateway to obsessive-compulsive disorder
Larger thalamic volume has been found in children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and children with clinical-level symptoms within the general population. Particular thalamic subregions may drive these differences. The ENIGMA-OCD working group conducted mega- and meta-analyses to study thalamic subregional volume in OCD across the lifespan. Structural T-1-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from 2649 OCD patients and 2774 healthy controls across 29 sites (50 datasets) were processed using the FreeSurfer built-in ThalamicNuclei pipeline to extract five thalamic subregions. Volume measures were harmonized for site effects using ComBat before running separate multiple linear regression models for children, adolescents, and adults to estimate volumetric group differences. All analyses were pre-registered (https://osf.io/73dvy) and adjusted for age, sex and intracranial volume. Unmedicated pediatric OCD patients (<12 years) had larger lateral (d = 0.46), pulvinar (d = 0.33), ventral (d = 0.35) and whole thalamus (d = 0.40) volumes at unadjusted p-values <0.05. Adolescent patients showed no volumetric differences. Adult OCD patients compared with controls had smaller volumes across all subregions (anterior, lateral, pulvinar, medial, and ventral) and smaller whole thalamic volume (d = -0.15 to -0.07) after multiple comparisons correction, mostly driven by medicated patients and associated with symptom severity. The anterior thalamus was also significantly smaller in patients after adjusting for thalamus size. Our results suggest that OCD-related thalamic volume differences are global and not driven by particular subregions and that the direction of effects are driven by both age and medication status
Exploring Glial Marker Activation and Neuroinflammation in Schizophrenia: A multimodal Approach
Bakgrunn: Forskningsresultater foreslår ulike typer gliaceller som sentrale i schizofreni patologi. Fremvoksende litteratur indikerer at gliaperspektivet kan bidra til å bedre forståelse og behandling for lidelsen. Denne masteroppgaven undersøkte hypotesen om gruppeforskjeller i aktivering i assosierte gliamarkører N-acetylaspartate acid, myo-inositol og choline, med videre utforskende analyser til symptomtype og alvorlighetsgrad, samt til perifere inflammasjonsmarkører, og til diffusjonsvektet avbildning (DTI). Metode: Gliamarkørene ble målt med magnetisk resonans spektroskopi-vektet (MRS) avbildning og prosessert med LCModel i fire vokselplasseringer. Kliniske symptomer ble registrert av Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS). Luminex Screening Human Magnetic Assay analyserte inflammasjonsmarkørene CRP og cytokinene. DTI data ble prosessert med FSL og Trakt-Basert Spatiell Statistikk (TBSS). Analysen inkluderte syttisyv schizofrenipasienter og kontroller (N = 154) matchet i alder (M = 30.23, SD = 10.23), håndbruk og kjønn (23.38% kvinner). Resultater: Det ble funnet signifikant høyere nivåer av choline i pasienter sammenlignet med kontrollpersoner, og vokselplasseringseffekter for NAA knyttet til anterior cingulate cortex. Det var trendnivåfunn for myo-inositol og gruppe-interaksjonseffekter på FA verdiene. Assosiasjonen var negativ i pasienter, og positive hos kontrollpersoner. Resultatene fra regresjonsmodellene indikerte vanskeligheter med å predikere positive og negative symptomer, samt for prediksjon av glialmarkørnivåer gjennom cytokiner og CRP, etter justering for kjente modererende faktorer. Diskusjon og konklusjon: Studiet hadde flere begrensninger og tekniske problemer. Gruppeforskjellene foreslår gliadysfunksjon, noe som kan ha implikasjoner for forståelsen og behandlingen av schizofreni
Thalamic volume before and after concentrated exposure and response prevention therapy in obsessive-compulsive disorder
Pre-registration of hypothesis and preliminary exploratory analysis for a research project on thalamic volume in OCD patients before and after psychotherapy
Diffusion Tensor Imaging Before and 3 Months After Concentrated Exposure Response Prevention in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Background: Subtle differences in white matter microstructure have been found in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) compared to controls using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), but it is unclear if and how this change after treatment. The primary aim of this pre-registered study was to investigate white matter integrity between OCD patients and controls and changes after concentrated exposure and response prevention (ERP). Methods: Fractional anisotropy (FA), radial diffusivity (RD), axial diffusivity (AD) and mean diffusivity (MD) were estimated using FMRIB Software Library (FSL). The images were registered to a study-specific template using a longitudinal pipeline based on full tensor information in DTI-TK. Voxel-based analysis was performed using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). Using SPSS, we compared the integrity in three bilateral regions of interest (ROI), the sagittal stratum, posterior thalamic radiation and cingulum, in 32 OCD patients and 30 matched healthy controls at baseline. Patients received a four-day concentrated ERP format. We investigated longitudinal changes in 26 OCD patients and 22 healthy controls at 3months follow-up using repeated-measures ANOVA. Exploratory t-tests were conducted for AD and MD. Secondary hypothesis used linear regression to investigate if baseline FA predict treatment outcome 3 months later, and if patients with illness onset before 18 years of age would show lower FA in sagittal stratum. Finally, we performed sensitivity analysis on medication and comorbidity influences on FA. Results: Three months after treatment, 77% of the patients were in remission. Contrary to our hypotheses, we did not find any significant differences in FA, RD, AD or MD between the groups before treatment, nor significant group by time effects in any of the ROI. None of the baseline FA measures significantly predicted treatment outcome. Illness onset before 18 years of age did not significantly predict FA in the sagittal stratum. Adjusting for medication or comorbid anxiety or mood disorder did not influence the results. Conclusions: Although concentrated ERP in OCD lead to high remission, we did not find significant long-term changes by DTI. Future studies will benefit from using larger sample sizes and multi-shell diffusion-weighted imaging when investigating white matter microstructure in OCD and underlying neurobiological mechanisms of treatment
The thalamus and its subnuclei-a gateway to obsessive-compulsive disorder
Larger thalamic volume has been found in children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and children with clinical-level symptoms within the general population. Particular thalamic subregions may drive these differences. The ENIGMA-OCD working group conducted mega- and meta-analyses to study thalamic subregional volume in OCD across the lifespan. Structural T1-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from 2649 OCD patients and 2774 healthy controls across 29 sites (50 datasets) were processed using the FreeSurfer built-in ThalamicNuclei pipeline to extract five thalamic subregions. Volume measures were harmonized for site effects using ComBat before running separate multiple linear regression models for children, adolescents, and adults to estimate volumetric group differences. All analyses were pre-registered ( https://osf.io/73dvy ) and adjusted for age, sex and intracranial volume. Unmedicated pediatric OCD patients (<12 years) had larger lateral (d = 0.46), pulvinar (d = 0.33), ventral (d = 0.35) and whole thalamus (d = 0.40) volumes at unadjusted p-values <0.05. Adolescent patients showed no volumetric differences. Adult OCD patients compared with controls had smaller volumes across all subregions (anterior, lateral, pulvinar, medial, and ventral) and smaller whole thalamic volume (d = -0.15 to -0.07) after multiple comparisons correction, mostly driven by medicated patients and associated with symptom severity. The anterior thalamus was also significantly smaller in patients after adjusting for thalamus size. Our results suggest that OCD-related thalamic volume differences are global and not driven by particular subregions and that the direction of effects are driven by both age and medication status.ISSN:2158-318
The thalamus and its subnuclei—a gateway to obsessive-compulsive disorder
Larger thalamic volume has been found in children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and children with clinical-level symptoms within the general population. Particular thalamic subregions may drive these differences. The ENIGMA-OCD working group conducted mega- and meta-analyses to study thalamic subregional volume in OCD across the lifespan. Structural T1-weighted brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from 2649 OCD patients and 2774 healthy controls across 29 sites (50 datasets) were processed using the FreeSurfer built-in ThalamicNuclei pipeline to extract five thalamic subregions. Volume measures were harmonized for site effects using ComBat before running separate multiple linear regression models for children, adolescents, and adults to estimate volumetric group differences. All analyses were pre-registered (https://osf.io/73dvy) and adjusted for age, sex and intracranial volume. Unmedicated pediatric OCD patients (<12 years) had larger lateral (d = 0.46), pulvinar (d = 0.33), ventral (d = 0.35) and whole thalamus (d = 0.40) volumes at unadjusted p-values <0.05. Adolescent patients showed no volumetric differences. Adult OCD patients compared with controls had smaller volumes across all subregions (anterior, lateral, pulvinar, medial, and ventral) and smaller whole thalamic volume (d = −0.15 to −0.07) after multiple comparisons correction, mostly driven by medicated patients and associated with symptom severity. The anterior thalamus was also significantly smaller in patients after adjusting for thalamus size. Our results suggest that OCD-related thalamic volume differences are global and not driven by particular subregions and that the direction of effects are driven by both age and medication status