Increased pituitary volume in patients with established bipolar affective disorder.
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction has been demonstrated in bipolar disorder (BD), but previous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of pituitary gland volume in BD have reported variable findings. In this MRI study we investigated pituitary volume in 26 patients with established bipolar I disorder (8 males and 18 females, mean age=38.4 years) and 24 matched controls (7 males and 17 females, mean age=38.7 years). The BD patients had a significantly larger pituitary volume as compared with controls, but there was no association between pituitary volume and illness duration, number of manic/depressive episodes, daily medication dosage, family history, or clinical subtype (i.e., psychotic and nonpsychotic). Pituitary volume was larger in females than in males for both groups. These results support previous neuroendocrine findings that implicate HPA axis dysfunction in the core pathophysiological process of BD.
Takahashi
Tsutomu
T
Department of Psychiatry, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Victoria, Australia. tsutomu@med.u-toyama.ac.jp
Malhi
Gin S
GS
Wood
Stephen J
SJ
Walterfang
Mark
M
Yücel
Murat
M
Lorenzetti
Valentina
V
Soulsby
Bridget
B
Suzuki
Michio
M
Velakoulis
Dennis
D
Pantelis
Christos
C
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000473:pathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D010902:Pituitary Gland / Q000473:pathology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic