Cited by 172Child Abuse and TraumaSubstance Abuse Treatment and OutcomesPosttraumatic Stress Disorder Research

Childhood maltreatment, altered limbic neurobiology, and substance use relapse severity via trauma-specific reductions in limbic gray matter volume

Open access
Van Dam, Nicholas T., Rando, Kenneth, Potenza, Marc N., Tuit, Keri, Sinha, Rajita·2014·JAMA Psychiatry

Abstract

IMPORTANCE: Substance use disorders (SUDs) are among the most common sequelae of childhood maltreatment, yet the independent contributions of SUDs and childhood maltreatment to neurobiological changes and the effect of the latter on relapse risk (a critical variable in addiction treatment) are relatively unknown. OBJECTIVES: To identify structural neural characteristics independently associated with childhood maltreatment (CM; a common type of childhood adversity), comparing a sample with SUD with a demographically comparable control sample, and to examine the relationship between CM-related structural brain changes and subsequent relapse. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Structural magnetic resonance imaging study comparing 79 treatment-engaged participants with SUD in acute remission in inpatient treatment at a community mental health center vs 98 healthy control participants at an outpatient research center at an academic medical center. Both groups included individuals with a range of CM experiences. Participants with SUD were followed up prospectively for 90 days to assess relapse and relapse severity. INTERVENTION: Standard 12-step, recovery-based, inpatient addiction treatment for all participants with SUD. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Gray matter volume (GMV), subsequent substance use relapse, days to relapse, and severity of relapse. RESULTS: Controlling for SUD and psychiatric comorbidity, CM (dichotomously classified) was uniquely associated with lower GMV across all participants in the left hippocampus (cornu ammonis 1-3, dentate gyrus), parahippocampus (presubiculum, parasubiculum, prosubiculum, subiculum, and entorhinal cortex), and anterior fusiform gyrus (corrected P < .05; uncorrected P = .001). Among the sample with SUD, CM prospectively predicted a shorter relapse to use of any drug (P = .048), while CM-related GMV reductions predicted severity of substance use relapse (P = .04). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Findings indicate that CM was related to decreased GMV in limbic regions, which in turn predicted increased risk of relapse in SUD. These results suggest that CM may significantly affect the course of SUD treatment outcomes and that SUD treatment planning may benefit from identifying and addressing CM.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.680

Cites

61 of 61 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 62 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Van Dam, N. T., Rando, K., Potenza, M. N., Tuit, K., & Sinha, R.
Affiliations
  • Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York
  • Yale University (US)
Corresponding author
Sinha, Rajita
Venue
JAMA Psychiatry
Published
2014-08-01
Volume
71
Issue
8
Pages
917
ISSN
2168-622X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2165105628
Cited by
172
References
62
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 2
FWCI
11.83
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • JAMA Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (RL1AA017539, R01AA013892, R01-AA-13892)
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (P50DA016556, PL1DA024859)
  • National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (UL1DE019586)
  • National Center for Research Resources (UL1RR024139)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
Keywords
child abuse, substance use disorders, substance use relapse, relapse severity, gray matter volume, limbic system, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, childhood adversity, addiction treatment outcomes, neurobiology of trauma
MeSH terms
Adult, Child, Child Abuse, Female, Hippocampus, Humans, Limbic System, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Recurrence, Risk, Severity of Illness Index, Temporal Lobe, Entorhinal Cortex, Substance-Related Disorders, Parahippocampal Gyrus, Gray Matter

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review