We thank Dr. Regenold for his interest and comment on our recent article (
1
), in which we demonstrated that chronic lithium (Li) treatment increased both whole-brain
volume and total cortical gray matter (GM) volume, relative to vehicle-treated controls,
the latter effect being reversible upon drug withdrawal, confirmed postmortem (
2
). Dr. Regenold suggests the osmotic effects of Li (
3
) may provide a plausible explanation for the apparently transitory increases in cortical
GM volume.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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References
- Lithium and the expanding brain.Biol Psychiatry. 2012; 72: e17
- Contrasting effects of haloperidol and lithium on rodent brain structure: a magnetic resonance imaging study with postmortem confirmation.Biol Psychiatry. 2012; 71: 855-863
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- Evolution of extra-nigral damage predicts behavioural deficits in a rat proteasome inhibitor model of Parkinson's disease.PLoS One. 2011; 6: e17269
- A stereotaxic MRI template set for the rat brain with tissue class distribution maps and co-registered anatomical atlas: application to pharmacological MRI.Neuroimage. 2006; 32: 538-550
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- Localized 7Li MR spectroscopy and spin relaxation in rat brain in vivo.Magn Reson Med. 2004; 52: 164-168
- Greater cortical gray matter density in lithium-treated patients with bipolar disorder.Biol Psychiatry. 2007; 62: 7-16
- Lithium-induced gray matter volume increase as a neural correlate of treatment response in bipolar disorder: a longitudinal brain imaging study.Neuropsychopharmacology. 2010; 35: 1743-1750
- Prefrontal gray matter increases in healthy individuals after lithium treatment: a voxel-based morphometry study.Neurosci Lett. 2007; 429: 7-11
Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 07, 2012
Footnotes
Please also see associated correspondence, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.03.036.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ScienceDirect
Access this article on ScienceDirectLinked Article
- Lithium and the Expanding BrainBiological PsychiatryVol. 72Issue 7
- PreviewI read with great interest the article by Vernon et al. (1) entitled, “Contrasting Effects of Haloperidol and Lithium on Rodent Brain Structure: A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study with Postmortem Confirmation,” describing their elegant imaging and postmortem study that showed lithium-related increases and haloperidol-related decreases in whole brain and cortical gray matter volume in rats. Their inclusion of postmortem histological confirmation of in vivo brain volume imaging data is a significant advancement over previous human studies limited to imaging (2–4).
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