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. 2008 Sep;193(3):216-21.
doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.107.048314.

Grey matter abnormalities in trichotillomania: morphometric magnetic resonance imaging study

Samuel R Chamberlain  1 , Lara A Menzies, Naomi A Fineberg, Natalia Del Campo, John Suckling, Kevin Craig, Ulrich Müller, Trevor W Robbins, Edward T Bullmore, Barbara J Sahakian
Affiliations

Grey matter abnormalities in trichotillomania: morphometric magnetic resonance imaging study

Samuel R Chamberlain et al. Br J Psychiatry. 2008 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Trichotillomania (repetitive hair-pulling) is an Axis I psychiatric disorder whose neurobiological basis is incompletely understood. Whole-brain trichotillomania neuroimaging studies are lacking.

Aims: To investigate grey and white matter abnormalities over the whole brain in patients with trichotillomania.

Method: Eighteen patients with DSM-IV trichotillomania and 19 healthy controls undertook structural magnetic resonance imaging after providing written informed consent. Differences in grey and white matter were investigated using computational morphometry.

Results: Patients with trichotillomania showed increased grey matter densities in the left striatum, left amygdalo-hippocampal formation, and multiple (including cingulate, supplementary motor, and frontal) cortical regions bilaterally.

Conclusions: Trichotillomania was associated with structural grey matter changes in neural circuitry implicated in habit learning, cognition and affect regulation. These findings inform animal models of the disorder and highlight key regions of interest for future translational research.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Map of grey matter volume excesses (red) in patients with trichotillomania compared with controls in (Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space, superimposed onto a standard template. Representative slices with z-coordinates indicated. Expected number of false positive cluster tests <1 over the whole map (equivalent P<0.004).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Grey matter densities in healthy controls and patients with trichotillomania for each of the three clusters identified in the permutation analysis. Cluster 1, left hippocampus, left amygdala, left putamen; Cluster 2, bilateral anterior/middle cingulate, bilateral supplemental motor area, bilateral fronto-superior cortices; Cluster 3, left superior/middle occupital cortex, left superior/inferior parietal cortex.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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