TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2024//
TI  - Childhood maltreatment and amygdala-mediated anxiety and posttraumatic stress following adult trauma
JO  - Biological psychiatry global open science
A1  - Harb, Farah
A1  - Liuzzi, Michael T.
A1  - Huggins, Ashley A.
A1  - Webb, E. Kate
A1  - Fitzgerald, Jacklynn M.
A1  - Krukowski, Jessica L.
A1  - deRoon-Cassini, Terri A.
A1  - Larson, Christine L.
SP  - e100312
EP  - e100312
VL  - 4
IS  - 4
N2  - BACKGROUND: Childhood abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual) is associated with aberrant connectivity of the amygdala, a key threat-processing region. Heightened amygdala activity also predicts adult anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, as do experiences of childhood abuse. The current study explored whether amygdala resting-state functional connectivity may explain the relationship between childhood abuse and anxiety and PTSD symptoms following trauma exposure in adults. <br><br>METHODS: Two weeks posttrauma, adult trauma survivors (n = 152, mean age [SD] = 32.61 [10.35] years; women = 57.2%) completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. PTSD and anxiety symptoms were assessed 6 months posttrauma. Seed-to-voxel analyses evaluated the association between childhood abuse and amygdala resting-state functional connectivity. A mediation model evaluated the potential mediating role of amygdala connectivity in the relationship between childhood abuse and posttrauma anxiety and PTSD. <br><br>RESULTS: Childhood abuse was associated with increased amygdala connectivity with the precuneus while covarying for age, gender, childhood neglect, and baseline PTSD symptoms. Amygdala-precuneus resting-state functional connectivity was a significant mediator of the effect of childhood abuse on anxiety symptoms 6 months posttrauma (B = 0.065; 95% CI, 0.013-0.130; SE = 0.030), but not PTSD. A secondary mediation analysis investigating depression as an outcome was not significant. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Amygdala-precuneus connectivity may be an underlying neural mechanism by which childhood abuse increases risk for anxiety following adult trauma. Specifically, this heightened connectivity may reflect attentional vigilance for threat or a tendency toward negative self-referential thoughts. <br><br>FINDINGS suggest that childhood abuse may contribute to longstanding upregulation of attentional vigilance circuits, which makes one vulnerable to anxiety-related symptoms in adulthood.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 2667-1743
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsgos.2024.100312
ID  - ref1
ER  -