Poster No:
618
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Camille Archer1, Hee Jung Jeong1, Gabrielle Reimann1, Everett Durham1, Shuti Wang1, Antonia Kaczkurkin1
Institutions:
1Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Developmental psychopathology emphasizes the transactional nature of psychobiological vulnerabilities (e.g., irritability) and environmental challenges (e.g., adverse events) in predicting mental health outcomes. However, few studies have examined the pathophysiology of irritability, including potential neurostructural risk factors. The purpose of the current study was to examine the interactive effect of adverse events and irritability on regional gray matter volumes (GMV) over time in a large sample of children.
Methods:
Participants included 9- to 10-year-old children (N = 11,131) from the longitudinal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Sum scores of both irritability and adverse events were created from clinical questionnaire data, and we examined whether their interaction predicted gray matter volume in 68 cortical and 19 subcortical regions using linear mixed effects modeling. GMV was collected at baseline and the second-year follow-up.
Results:
Results showed that the interaction of greater irritability and adverse events predicted faster brain volume reductions in several regions, including the left paracentral lobe, left pars orbitalis, and right middle and superior temporal gyri (p-values ≤ .05). In other words, those with high levels of adversity and high levels of irritability showed steeper declines in volume.
Conclusions:
There is a lack of research examining the neurostructural correlates of irritability in youth, while accounting for environmental context. Here we demonstrate that a unique combination of adversity and high irritability predicts faster brain volume reduction in children, demonstrating that irritability in the context of adversity may represent a unique neurostructural risk factor. While declines in GMV during childhood and early adolescence are normative, this study suggests that the combination of high adversity and irritability is associated with accelerated maturation, which may be a short-term adaptive response to high levels of stress. This highlights the need for more research on examining the pathophysiology of irritability in relation to environmental factors.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) 1
Neuroanatomy, Physiology, Metabolism and Neurotransmission:
Neuroanatomy Other 2
Keywords:
Affective Disorders
MRI
STRUCTURAL MRI
Trauma
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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