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Preliminary Evidence for Sensitive Periods in the Effect of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Regional Brain Development

Received November 21, 2006; revised April 25, 2007; accepted May 10, 2007. Drs. Andersen, Tomada, and Teicher are affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School; Drs. Andersen, Tomada, Valente, Polcari, and Teicher are affiliated with the Developmental Biopsychiatry Research Program at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass.; Ms. Vincow is affiliated with the Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of Washington in Seattle, Wash. Address correspondence to Martin H. Teicher, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, 115 Mill St., Belmont, MA 02478; martin_teicher{at}hms.harvard.edu (e-mail).

Volumetric MRI scans from 26 women with repeated episodes of childhood sexual abuse and 17 healthy female comparison subjects (ages 18–22 years) were analyzed for sensitive period effects on hippocampal and amygdala volume, frontal cortex gray matter volume and corpus callosum area. Hippocampal volume was reduced in association with childhood sexual abuse at ages 3–5 years and ages 11–13 years. Corpus callosum was reduced with childhood sexual abuse at ages 9–10 years, and frontal cortex was attenuated in subjects with childhood sexual abuse at ages 14–16 years. Brain regions have unique windows of vulnerability to the effects of traumatic stress.

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