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Reduced thalamic volume in men with antisocial personality disorder or schizophrenia and a history of serious violence and childhood abuse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2012

V. Kumari ,
G.H. Gudjonsson ,
S. Raghuvanshi ,
I. Barkataki ,
P. Taylor ,
A. Sumich ,
K. Das ,
E. Kuipers ,
D.H. Ffytche  and
M. Das
V. Kumari*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, PO78, SE5 8AF, London, UK NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health, South London and Maudsley Foundation NHS Trust, London, UK
G.H. Gudjonsson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, PO78, SE5 8AF, London, UK NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health, South London and Maudsley Foundation NHS Trust, London, UK
S. Raghuvanshi
Affiliation:
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, Brighton, UK
I. Barkataki
Affiliation:
Oxford Doctoral Course in Clinical Psychology, Warneford Hospital, UK
P. Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
A. Sumich
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom
K. Das
Affiliation:
Broadmoor Special Hospital, Crowthorne, Berkshire, UK
E. Kuipers
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, PO78, SE5 8AF, London, UK NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health, South London and Maudsley Foundation NHS Trust, London, UK
D.H. Ffytche
Affiliation:
Department of Old Age Psychiatry and Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
M. Das
Affiliation:
Broadmoor Special Hospital, Crowthorne, Berkshire, UK
*
⁎Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 207 848 0233, fax: +44 207 808 0860. E-mail address: veena.kumari@kcl.ac.uk (V. Kumari).
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Abstract

Objective

Violent behaviour has been associated with presence of certain mental disorders, most notably antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and schizophrenia, childhood abuse, and multiple brain abnormalities. This study examined for the first time, to the authors’ knowledge, the role of psychosocial deprivation (PSD), including childhood physical and sexual abuse, in structural brain volumes of violent individuals with ASPD or schizophrenia.

Methods

Fifty-six men (26 with ASPD or schizophrenia and a history of serious violence, 30 non-violent) underwent magnetic resonance imaging and were assessed on PSD. Stereological volumetric brain ratings were examined for group differences and their association with PSD ratings. PSD-brain associations were examined further using voxel-based-morphometry.

Results

The findings revealed: reduced thalamic volume in psychosocially-deprived violent individuals, relative to non-deprived violent individuals and healthy controls; negative association between thalamic volume and abuse ratings (physical and sexual) in violent individuals; and trend-level negative associations between PSD and hippocampal and prefrontal volumes in non-violent individuals. The voxel-based-morphometry analysis detected a negative association between PSD and localised grey matter volumes in the left inferior frontal region across all individuals, and additionally in the left middle frontal and precentral gyri in non-violent individuals.

Conclusions

Violent mentally-disordered individuals with PSD, relative to those with no or minimal PSD, suffer from an additional brain deficit, i.e., reduced thalamic volume; this may affect sensory information processing, and have implications for management, of these individuals. PSD may have a stronger relationship with volumetric loss of stress-linked regions, namely the frontal cortex, in non-violent individuals.

Keywords

Psychosocial deprivationSexual abusePhysical abuseViolenceMRIThalamus
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , May 2013 , pp. 225 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2012

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