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. 2021:30:102686.
doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102686. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Smaller volume of posterior thalamic nuclei in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Jinhyung Jurng  1 , Hyungyou Park  2 , Taekwan Kim  2 , Inkyung Park  2 , Sun-Young Moon  3 , Silvia Kyungjin Lho  3 , Minah Kim  4 , Jun Soo Kwon  5
Affiliations

Smaller volume of posterior thalamic nuclei in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Jinhyung Jurng et al. Neuroimage Clin. 2021.

Abstract

Aim: Although the thalamus is a key structure in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), reports regarding thalamic volume alterations in OCD patients have been inconsistent. Because the thalamus has a complex structure with distinct functions, we investigated subregional volume changes in the thalamus and their relationship with clinical attributes in a large sample of medication-free OCD patients.

Methods: We collected T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging data from 177 OCD patients and 152 healthy controls (HCs). Using FreeSurfer, we segmented the thalamus into 12 nuclei groups; subregional volumes were compared between groups using an analysis of covariance. The relationships between altered thalamic volumes and OC symptom severity and OCD onset age were investigated.

Results: Compared to HCs, OCD patients showed a smaller volume of the left posterior thalamic nuclei. Other thalamic subregions did not show significant group differences. There was a significant negative correlation between the volume of the left posterior thalamic nuclei and the age of OCD onset but no significant correlation with OC symptom severity.

Conclusions: This is the first study to report reduced volume of the posterior thalamic nuclei in a large sample of medication-free OCD patients. Our results suggest that the volume of posterior thalamic nuclei may reflect different pathophysiological mechanisms of OCD subtypes related to the age of onset. Additional studies with pediatric samples are required to clarify the relationship between thalamic alterations and the onset age of OCD.

Keywords: Age of onset; Clinical attribute; Obsessive–compulsive disorder; Subregional volume; Thalamus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A 3D view of the thalamic nuclei groups obtained from thalamic segmentation.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Volume of left posterior thalamic nuclei was smaller in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) than healthy controls (HCs). (A) Left posterior thalamic nuclei is shown in blue. (B) Bar chart shows the volume of the left posterior thalamic nuclei in OCD patients and HCs, controlling for age, sex, and estimated total intracranial volume.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Correlation analysis between the volume of the thalamic subregion and age of onset in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). The volume of left posterior thalamic nuclei was negatively correlated with age of onset in OCD patients.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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