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Prospective study of hippocampal volume and function in human subjects treated with corticosteroids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

Tomáš Hájek ,
Miloslav Kopeček ,
Marek Preiss ,
Martin Alda  and
Cyril Höschl
Tomáš Hájek*
Affiliation:
Prague Psychiatric Center and Charles University, 3rd School of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, QEII HSC, A.J. Lane Bldg., Room 4031, 5909 Veteran's Memorial Lane, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 2E2
Miloslav Kopeček
Affiliation:
Prague Psychiatric Center and Charles University, 3rd School of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic
Marek Preiss
Affiliation:
Prague Psychiatric Center and Charles University, 3rd School of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic
Martin Alda
Affiliation:
Prague Psychiatric Center and Charles University, 3rd School of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, QEII HSC, A.J. Lane Bldg., Room 4031, 5909 Veteran's Memorial Lane, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 2E2
Cyril Höschl
Affiliation:
Prague Psychiatric Center and Charles University, 3rd School of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic
*
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 902 473 4677; fax: +1 902 473 1583. E-mail address:hajek@pcp.lf3.cuni.cz (T. Hájek).
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Abstract

Purpose.

Decreased hippocampal volume reported in neuropsychiatric and endocrine disorders is considered a result of putative neuronal damage mediated by corticosteroids. This is the first prospective study of hippocampal volume and function in patients treated with corticosteroids.

Methods.

14 subjects treated systemically with prednisone or betamethasone for dermatological or rheumatic disorders underwent prospective neurocognitive testing (Auditory Verbal Learning Test—AVLT, Trail Making Test—TMT, Digit Span—DS) and nine of them also repeated magnetic resonance volumetry.

Results.

The mean duration of treatment between the first and the second assessment was 73 ± 38 days with mean daily dose of 37 ± 17 mg prednisone and 193 ± 29 days, with mean daily dose of 24 ± 15 mg prednisone between the first and the third assessment. There was a trend towards decreases in total AVLT scores and an improvement in the TMT and DS, but no significant changes in the volumes of the right or the left hippocampi between the assessments. Prednisone dose did not correlate with the hippocampal volume change.

Conclusion.

We observed a trend for decline in verbal memory despite improvement in psychomotor speed, attention/working memory and no macroscopic hippocampal volume changes during 36–238 days of treatment with therapeutic doses of corticosteroids.

Keywords

HippocampusCorticosteroidsMagnetic resonance imagingMemory
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , March 2006 , pp. 123 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier SAS 2006

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