Abnormal corpus callosum myelination in pediatric bipolar patients.
BACKGROUND
Decreased signal intensity in the corpus callosum, reported in adult bipolar disorder patients, has been regarded as an indicator of abnormalities in myelination. Here we compared the callosal signal intensity of children and adolescents with bipolar disorder to that of matched healthy subjects, to investigate the hypothesis that callosal myelination is abnormal in pediatric bipolar patients.


METHODS
Children and adolescents with DSM-IV bipolar disorder (n=16, mean age+/-S.D.=15.5+/-3.4 y) and matched healthy comparison subjects (n=21, mean age+/-S.D.=16.9+/-3.8 y) underwent a 1.5 T MRI brain scan. Corpus callosum signal intensity was measured using an Apple Power Mac G4 running NIH Image1.62 software.


RESULTS
Bipolar children and adolescents had significantly lower corpus callosum signal intensity for all callosal sub-regions (genu, anterior body, posterior body, isthmus and splenium) compared to healthy subjects (ANCOVA, all p<0.05, age and gender as covariates).


CONCLUSIONS
Relatively small sample size.


CONCLUSIONS
Abnormalities in corpus callosum, probably due to altered myelination during neurodevelopment, may play a role in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder among children and adolescents.
Division of Mood and Anxiety Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.
Sheila C
SC
Caetano
Camila Magalhães
CM
Silveira
Simerjit
S
Kaur
Mark
M
Nicoletti
John P
JP
Hatch
Paolo
P
Brambilla
Roberto
R
Sassi
David
D
Axelson
Matcheri S
MS
Keshavan
Neal D
ND
Ryan
Boris
B
Birmaher
Jair C
JC
Soares
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D061085:Agenesis of Corpus Callosum; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000503:physiopathology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging