Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2015
Hippocampal volume in healthy controls given 3-day stress doses of hydrocortisone.
Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Corticosteroids and Cognition: A Meta-Analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2019Pooled it
- A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of lamotrigine for prescription corticosteroid effects on the human hippocampus.European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2019Trial
- Can Sodium Oxybate Mitigate the Symptoms of Schizophrenia?Current neuropharmacology · 2026Review
- Idiosyncrasy and generalizability of contraceptive- and hormone-related functional connectomes across the menstrual cycle.Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- A single-arm, open-label pilot study of neuroimaging, behavioral, and peripheral inflammatory correlates of mindfulness-based stress reduction in multiple sclerosis.Scientific reports · 2024Observational
- Interpreting the meaning of changes in hippocampal volume associated with vestibular loss.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2023Article
- Two cases of steroid dementia showing partial recovery during 2-year follow-up.PCN reports : psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2022Article
- Article
- Long-term effects of glucocorticoid excess on the brain.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2022Review
- Influence of chronic stress on the mechanism of the cytotoxic system in common carp (Cyprinus carpio).Immunology · 2021Review
- Neurobiological mechanisms underlying sex-related differences in stress-related disorders: Effects of neuroactive steroids on the hippocampus.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2019Review
- Behavioral and structural adaptations to stress.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2018Review
- Toward valid and reliable brain imaging results in eating disorders.The International journal of eating disorders · 2018Article
- The Role of ApoE Polymorphism in the Relationship between Serum Steroid Hormone Levels and Cognition in Older Chinese Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2018Article
- Stress and Loss of Adult Neurogenesis Differentially Reduce Hippocampal Volume.Biological psychiatry · 2017Article
- Hippocampal volume, social interactions, and the expression of the normal repertoire of resident-intruder behavior.Brain and behavior · 2017Article
- Elevated CYP2C19 expression is associated with depressive symptoms and hippocampal homeostasis impairment.Molecular psychiatry · 2017Article
- Hippocampal volume in patients with asthma: Results from the Dallas Heart Study.The Journal of asthma : official journal of the Association for the Care of Asthma · 2017Article
- Moderating Effects of Cortisol on Neural-Cognitive Association in Cognitively Normal Elderly Subjects.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2017Article
- Short-term mechanisms influencing volumetric brain dynamics.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
In animal models, corticosterone elevations are associated with hippocampal changes that can be prevented with phenytoin. In humans, Cushing's syndrome and long-term prescription corticosteroid use are associated with a reduction in the hippocampal volume. However, little is known about the effects of short-term corticosteroid administration on the hippocampus. The current report examines changes in the hippocampal volume during a brief hydrocortisone exposure and whether volumetric changes can be blocked by phenytoin. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject crossover study was conducted in healthy adults (n=17). Participants received hydrocortisone (160 mg/day)/placebo, phenytoin/placebo, both medications together, or placebo/placebo, with 21-day washouts between the conditions. Structural MRI scans and cortisol levels were obtained following each medication condition. No significant difference in the total brain volume was observed with hydrocortisone. However, hydrocortisone was associated with a significant 1.69% reduction in the total hippocampal volume compared with placebo. Phenytoin blocked the volume reduction associated with hydrocortisone. Reduction in hippocampal volume correlated with the change in cortisol levels (r=-0.58, P=0.03). To our knowledge, this is the first report of structural hippocampal changes with brief corticosteroid exposure. The correlation between the change in hippocampal volume and cortisol level suggests that the volume changes are related to cortisol elevation. Although the findings from this pilot study need replication, they suggest that the reductions in hippocampal volume occur even during brief exposure to corticosteroids, and that hippocampal changes can, as in animal models, be blocked by phenytoin. The results may have implications both for understanding the response of the hippocampus to stress as well as for patients receiving prescription corticosteroids.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.