title: Is cerebellar volume related to bipolar disorder?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recent data suggest that cerebellum influences emotion modulation in humans. The findings of cerebellar abnormalities in bipolar disorder (BD) are especially intriguing given the link between the cerebellum emotional and behavioral regulation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate cerebellar volume in patients with euthymic BD type I compared to controls. Moreover, we investigated the possible relationship between cerebellar volume and suicidal behavior.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-patients with euthymic BD type I, 20 with and 20 without history of suicide attempt, and 22 healthy controls underwent an MRI scan. The participants were interviewed using the Structured Clinical Interview with the DSM-IV axis I (SCID-I), the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Groups were age, gender and years of schooling-matched. The left cerebellum (p=0.02), right cerebellum (p=0.02) and vermis (p<0.01) were significantly smaller in the BD group; however, there were no volumetric differences between the BD subjects with and without suicidal attempt. There was no correlation between cerebellar measurements and clinical variables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The main strength is that our sample consisted of patients with euthymic BD type I without any comorbidities, however, these results cannot establish causality as the cross-sectional nature of the study.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that the reduction in cerebellar volumes observed in BD type I might be a trait-related characteristic of this disorder. Additional studies with larger samples and subtypes of this heterogeneous disorder are warranted to determine the possible specificity of this cerebellar finding.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal Tocantins, Tocantins, Brazil. leonardobaldassara@gmail.com
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Baldaçara
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nery-Fernandes
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rocha
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Quarantini
authors.forename: G G L
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Rocha
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Guimarães
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miranda-Scippa
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jackowski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000473:pathology; D015897:Comorbidity; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013406:Suicide, Attempted; D055815:Young Adult