White matter alterations in male patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

To investigate white matter abnormalities in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder and to clarify the relationship between discrete white matter alterations and obsessive–compulsive symptom dimensions, the fractional anisotropy obtained from 25 male patients and 25 matched normal controls were analyzed. The patients had a significantly lower fractional anisotropy in the left anterior cingulate white matter than the controls. When stratified by clinical symptom dimensions, patients with a predominant aggressive/checking symptom dimension exhibited a significantly lower fractional anisotropy in the left anterior cingulate white matter, whereas patients with a predominant contamination/cleaning symptom dimension showed a significantly higher fractional anisotropy in the bilateral prefrontal white matter. Our findings provide evidence that obsessive–compulsive disorder may be a heterogeneous disease with distinct white matter changes.