title: Smaller pituitary volume in adult patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Another structure in the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) circuit may be the pituitary gland because of the fact that limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (LHPA) axis abnormality has been reported in patients with OCD. There has been only one prior study, however, concerning pituitary volumetry, in which the sample was a pediatric group. The purpose of the present study was therefore to investigate this in an adult OCD patient group using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Pituitary volume was measured in 23 OCD patients and the same number of healthy control subjects. Volumetric measurements were made on T1-weighted coronal MRI, with 2.40-mm-thick slices, at 1.5 T, and were done blindly.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A statistically significantly smaller pituitary volume was found in OCD patients compared to healthy controls (age and intracranial volume as covariates). With regard to gender and diagnosis, there was a significant difference in pituitary gland volume (F = 4.18, P < 0.05). In addition, post-hoc analysis indicated near-significant difference in men with OCD as compared with women with OCD (P = 0.07) and significant difference between control men and control women (F = 10.96, P < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taking into consideration that the prior study found decreases in pituitary volume in pediatric patients with OCD as compared with healthy control subjects, future large MRI studies should investigate pituitary size longitudinally, with a careful characterization of hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function in conjunction with anatomic MRI evaluation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Firat University School of Medicine, Elazig, Turkey. matmaca_p@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Murad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Atmaca
authors.forename: Hanefi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yildirim
authors.forename: Sinan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ozler
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koc
authors.forename: Bilge
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kara
authors.forename: Semih
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sec
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001284:Atrophy / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000473:pathology; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*; D010902:Pituitary Gland / Q000473:pathology*; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000473:pathology