Reduced volume of limbic system-affiliated basal ganglia in mood disorders: preliminary data from a postmortem study.
Volumes of basal ganglia in postmortem brains of 8 patients with mood disorders and 8 control subjects without neuropsychiatric disorder were determined. Morphometry of serial whole-brain sections under the control of postmortem artifacts revealed reduced volumes of the left nucleus accumbens (-32%, P = 0.01), the right and left external pallidum (-20%, P = 0.04), and the right putamen (-15%, P = 0.04) in the patient group compared with the control group. These results suggest that, in particular, the limbic loop of the basal ganglia involving the nucleus accumbens and the pallidum is affected in mood disorders.
Baumann
B
B
Department of Psychiatry, University of Magdeburg, Germany.
Danos
P
P
Krell
D
D
Diekmann
S
S
Leschinger
A
A
Stauch
R
R
Wurthmann
C
C
Bernstein
H G
HG
Bogerts
B
B
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000886:Anthropometry; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000473:pathology*; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005917:Globus Pallidus / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008032:Limbic System; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000473:pathology*; D009434:Neural Pathways; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000473:pathology*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000473:pathology; D011699:Putamen / Q000473:pathology