Background
In vivo imaging studies in adult bipolar patients have suggested enlargement of the
amygdala. It is not known whether this abnormality is already present early in the
illness course or whether it develops later in life. We conducted a morphometric MRI
study to examine the size of specific temporal lobe structures in adolescents and
young adults with bipolar disorder and healthy control subjects, as well as their
relationship with age, to examine possible neurodevelopmental abnormalities.
Methods
Subjects included 16 DSM-IV bipolar patients (16 ± 3 years) and 21 healthy controls
(mean age ± SD = 17 ± 4 years). Measures of amygdala, hippocampus, temporal gray matter,
temporal lobe, and intracranial volumes (ICV) were obtained.
Results
There was a trend to smaller left amygdala volumes in patients (mean volumes ± SD
= 1.58 ± .42 mL) versus control subjects (1.83 ± .4 mL; F = 3.87, df = 1,32, p = .06). Bipolar patients did not show significant differences in right or left hippocampus,
temporal lobe gray matter, temporal lobe, or right amygdala volumes (analysis of covariance,
age, gender, and ICV as covariates, p > .05) compared with healthy control subjects. Furthermore, there was a direct correlation
between left amygdala volumes and age (r = .50, p = .047) in patients, whereas in healthy controls there was an inverse correlation
(r = −.48, p = .03).
Conclusions
The direct correlation between left amygdala volumes and age in bipolar patients,
not present in healthy control subjects, may reflect abnormal developmental mechanisms
in bipolar disorder.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
June 15,
2004
Received in revised form:
June 1,
2004
Received:
September 16,
2003
Identification
Copyright
© 2004 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
