Trial reportPsychological medicine2020
Anterior hippocampal volume predicts affect-focused psychotherapy outcome.
Trial report in Psychological medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT00739765 (Psychotherapies for Chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), which is not on this map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
Psychotherapies for Chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Does trauma-focused psychotherapy change the brain? A systematic review of neural correlates of therapeutic gains in PTSD.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2021Pooled it
- Neural changes following equine-assisted therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder: A longitudinal multimodal imaging study.Human brain mapping · 2021Trial
- The ventral/anterior hippocampus as a central hub for stress-related dopaminergic circuit dysfunction in psychiatric disorders.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Smaller Hippocampal Volume Is Associated With Reduced Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in Children With Cancer and Survivors Following a Brief Novel Martial Arts-Based Intervention.Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists · 2024Article
- Structural Neuroimaging of Hippocampus and Amygdala Subregions in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Scoping Review.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2024Article
- Underlying Hippocampal Mechanism of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Treatment Outcome: Evidence From Two Clinical Trials.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2023Article
- Neural underpinnings of open-label placebo effects in emotional distress.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Elucidating behavioral and functional connectivity markers of aberrant threat discrimination in PTSD.Depression and anxiety · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe hippocampus plays an important role in psychopathology and treatment outcome. While posterior hippocampus (PH) may be crucial for the learning process that exposure-based treatments require, affect-focused treatments might preferentially engage anterior hippocampus (AH). Previous studies have distinguished the different functions of these hippocampal sub-regions in memory, learning, and emotional processes, but not in treatment outcome. Examining two independent clinical trials, we hypothesized that anterior hippocampal volume would predict outcome of affect-focused treatment outcome [Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT); Panic-Focused Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (PFPP)], whereas posterior hippocampal volume would predict exposure-based treatment outcome [Prolonged Exposure (PE); Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); Applied Relaxation Training (ART)].
methodsThirty-five patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 24 with panic disorder (PD) underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before randomization to affect-focused (IPT for PTSD; PFPP for PD) or exposure-based treatments (PE for PTSD; CBT or ART for PD). AH and PH volume were regressed with clinical outcome changes.
resultsBaseline whole hippocampal volume did not predict post-treatment clinical severity scores in any treatment. For affect-focused treatments, but not exposure-based treatments, anterior hippocampal volume predicted clinical improvement. Smaller AH correlated with greater affect-focused treatment improvement. Posterior hippocampal volume did not predict treatment outcome.
conclusionsThis is the first study to explore associations between hippocampal volume sub-regions and treatment outcome in PTSD and PD. Convergent results suggest that affect-focused treatment may influence the clinical outcome through the 'limbic' AH, whereas exposure-based treatments do not. These preliminary, theory-congruent, therapeutic findings require replication in a larger clinical trial.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.