title: Is brain banking of psychiatric cases valuable for neurobiological research?
abstract: It is widely accepted that neurobiological abnormalities underlie the symptoms of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and unipolar or bipolar affective disorders. New molecular methods, computer-assisted quantification techniques and neurobiological investigation methods that can be applied to the human brain are all used in post-mortem investigations of psychiatric disorders. The following article describes modern quantitative methods and recent post-mortem findings in schizophrenia and affective disorders. Using our brain bank as an example, necessary considerations of modern brain banking are addressed such as ethical considerations, clinical work-up, preparation techniques and the organization of a brain bank, the value of modern brain banking for investigations of psychiatric disorders is summarized.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Goettingen, Germany. aschmit@gwdg.de
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schmitt
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Parlapani
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Heinsen
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Falkai
mesh_terms: D001344:Autopsy / Q000379:methods; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000473:pathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D009446:Neurobiology; D011570:Psychiatry; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000473:pathology*; D014015:Tissue Banks