Abstract #2674

Cortical structure mediates the effect of childhood maltreatment on depression relapse during longitudinal follow-up

Harald Kugel¹, Nils Opel², Ronny Redlich², Katharina Dohm², Dario Zaremba², Janik Goltermann², Jonathan Repple Repple², Claas Kaehler^2,3, Dominik Grotegerd², Elisabeth J. J. Leehr², Joscha Böhnlein², Katharina Förster², Susanne Meinert², Verena Enneking², Lisa Sindermann², Fanny Dzvonyar², Daniel Emden², Ramona Leenings², Nils Winter², Tim Hahn², Walter Heindel¹, Ulrike Buhlmann⁴, Bernhard T. Baune⁵, Volker Arolt², and Udo Dannlowski²

¹Institute of Clinical Radiology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany, ²Department of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany, ³Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Münster, Münster, Germany, ⁴Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Münster, Münster, Germany, ⁵Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

Childhood maltreatment is a strong risk factor for the onset of major depressive disorder (MDD) and associated with unfavorable course of the disease. Both, maltreatment and MDD have been independently associated with structural alterations in partly overlapping brain regions suggesting that brain structural changes could mediate the adverse influence of maltreatment on clinical outcome in MDD. In this study the relationship between childhood trauma, brain structural alterations and adverse disease course was investigated in a longitudinal design. Our results suggest that cortical surface area reductions might mediate the prospective association between early life stress and future depression relapse.

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