The Traumatized Brain : A systematic review of Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder and Hippocampal Volume

Abstract: The aim of this study was to look at the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on the hippocampus, specifically any variations in volume between individuals with PTSD and a control group. Two databases, PubMed and Web of Science, were utilised to locate literature, with a focuson recent (5-year) articles. These were the study's inclusion requirements: (1) inclusion of adults with PTSD; (2) MRI as a method of studying changes in the brain ; (3) Comparison of outcomes with a control group with or without trauma. This studys exclusion criteria were: (1) non-English language papers, (2) non- adults participants, and (3) other imaging method than MRI. These criteria were intended to ensure the selection of appropriate articles and the uniformity of the systematic review. All the studies looked at MRI to investigate structural changes in the volume of the hippocampus. In the end I investigated 10 studies with a total of 3,826 participants and the findings of these investigations revealed that some studies shown dicreasing of hippocampal volume between patients with PTSD and the control group, whereas others found no such changes as the result of the investigation. These disparate findings show a lack of agreement in the available literature on the influence of PTSD on hippocampus volume. The selection of only recent (5 years) papers and the limited number of studies were the constraints. However, due to a lack of time, broader research could not be done, which made it difficult to draw more accurate conclusions from the study.