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Smaller hippocampal volume has been reported only in some but not all studies of unipolar major depressive disorder. Severe stress early in life has also been associated with smaller hippocampal volume and with persistent changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. However, prior hippocampal morphometric studies in depressed patients have neither reported nor controlled for a history of early childhood trauma. In this study, the volumes of the hippocampus and of control brain regions were measured in depressed women with and without childhood abuse and in healthy nonabused comparison subjects. Study participants were 32 women with current unipolar major depressive disorder—21 with a history of prepubertal physical and/or sexual abuse and 11 without a history of prepubertal abuse—and 14 healthy nonabused female volunteers. The volumes of the whole …