MRI scan reports from 536 psychiatric inpatients in 10 DSM-III-R
diagnostic categories and 51 normal control subjects were reviewed for
incidence and severity of four types of abnormality: deep white matter
hyperintensities, periventricular hyperintensities, ventricular
enlargement, and cortical atrophy. Multivariate analysis revealed
significant effects for both diagnosis and age and a significant
interaction. After age covariance, the most discriminant type of
abnormality was ventricular enlargement, with normal control subjects
having significantly less enlargement than 6 of 10 patient groups,
including the personality disorder and the depressed nonpsychotic groups.
The data also suggested important diagnosis by age by type-of- abnormality
interactions deserving of further study.
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