Characterizing White Matter Changes along Fibers in Treatment-Naive Pediatric Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Children and adolescents are more susceptible than adults to developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Pediatric PTSD is characterized by functional alterations in brain fear circuitry, but little is known about the underlying microstructural changes; previous work has mainly focused on the corpus callosum. This study is aimed at investigating brain-wide microstructural abnormalities in pediatric PTSD, their relationship to age and sex, and their potential diagnostic value. The microstructure of major white matter tracts was assessed from diffusion tensor images acquired from 24 treatment-naive non-comorbid PTSD patients