This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (128)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Public Health  • Substance Abuse/ Alcoholism  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Ingrid Agartz, MD, PhD; Reza Momenan, PhD; Robert R. Rawlings, MS; Michael J. Kerich, BS; Daniel W. Hommer, MD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1999;56:356-363.

Background  Smaller hippocampal volumes have been reported in the brains of alcoholic patients than in those of healthy subjects, although it is unclear if the hippocampus is disproportionally smaller than the brain as a whole. There is evidence that alcoholic women are more susceptible than alcoholic men to liver and cardiac damage from alcohol. It is not known whether the hippocampi of the female brain are more vulnerable to alcohol.

Methods  We compared the hippocampal volumes in 52 hospitalized alcoholic men and women with those of 36 healthy nonalcoholic men and women. All subjects were between 27 and 53 years of age. The hippocampal volumes were measured from sagittal T₁-weighted high-resolution magnetic resonance images.

Results  The alcoholic women had less lifetime drinking and a later age at onset of heavy drinking than alcoholic men. Both alcoholic men and women had significantly smaller right hippocampi and larger cerebrospinal fluid volumes than healthy subjects of the same sex. Only among women were the left hippocampus and the nonhippocampal brain volume also significantly smaller. The proportion of hippocampal volume relative to the rest of the brain volume was the same in alcoholic patients and healthy subjects, in both men and women. The right hippocampus was larger than the left among all subjects. Women demonstrated larger hippocampal volumes relative to total brain volume than men. Psychiatric comorbidity, including posttraumatic stress disorder, did not affect hippocampal volume.

Conclusions  In chronic alcoholism, the reduction of hippocampal volume is proportional to the reduction of the brain volume. Alcohol consumption should be accounted for in studies of hippocampal damage.

From the Section on Electrophysiology and Brain Imaging, Laboratory of Clinical Studies, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Amygdala Volume Associated With Alcohol Abuse Relapse and Craving
Wrase et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2008;165:1179-1184.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Gender-Common and -Specific Neuroanatomical Basis of Human Anxiety-Related Personality Traits
Yamasue et al.
Cereb Cortex 2008;18:46-52.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

RECOVERY OF HIPPOCAMPUS-RELATED FUNCTIONS IN CHRONIC ALCOHOLICS DURING MONITORED LONG-TERM ABSTINENCE
BARTELS et al.
Alcohol Alcohol 2007;42:92-102.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Hippocampal Volume, PTSD, and Alcoholism in Combat Veterans
Woodward et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2006;163:674-681.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Adult Neurogenesis: From Precursors to Network and Physiology
Abrous et al.
Physiol. Rev. 2005;85:523-569.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Hippocampal Volume in Adult Burn Patients With and Without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Winter and Irle
Am. J. Psychiatry 2004;161:2194-2200.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Temporally Specific Burst in Cell Proliferation Increases Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Protracted Abstinence from Alcohol
Nixon and Crews
J. Neurosci. 2004;24:9714-9722.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

ANALYSIS OF 5-HYDROXYTRYPTAMINE 2C RECEPTOR GENE PROMOTER VARIANTS AS ALCOHOL-DEPENDENCE RISK FACTORS
Mottagui-Tabar et al.
Alcohol Alcohol 2004;39:380-385.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Hippocampal volume deficits in alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome
Sullivan and Marsh
Neurology 2003;61:1716-1719.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Voxel-based analysis of MRI reveals anterior cingulate gray-matter volume reduction in posttraumatic stress disorder due to terrorism
Yamasue et al.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2003;100:9039-9043.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Evidence for a Gender-Related Effect of Alcoholism on Brain Volumes
Hommer et al.
Focus 2003;1:171-178.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

LACK OF ASSOCIATION BETWEEN HIPPOCAMPAL VOLUME REDUCTION AND FIRST-ONSET ALCOHOL WITHDRAWAL SEIZURE. A VOLUMETRIC MRI STUDY
Bleich et al.
Alcohol Alcohol 2003;38:40-44.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Childhood Trauma Associated With Smaller Hippocampal Volume in Women With Major Depression
Vythilingam et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2002;159:2072-2080.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Hippocampal volume as an index of Alzheimer neuropathology: Findings from the Nun Study
Gosche et al.
Neurology 2002;58:1476-1482.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Alcohol Consumption and Subclinical Findings on Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain in Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study Editorial Comment: The Cardiovascular Health Study
Mukamal et al.
Stroke 2001;32:1939-1946.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Longitudinal MRI Study of Hippocampal Volume in Trauma Survivors With PTSD
Bonne et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2001;158:1248-1251.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Sex Differences in the Effects of Alcohol on Brain Structure
Pfefferbaum et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2001;158:188-197.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Evidence for a Gender-Related Effect of Alcoholism on Brain Volumes
Hommer et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2001;158:198-204.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT