J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1995; 7:49-53
Copyright © 1995 by American Neuropsychiatric Association
MRI abnormalities in major psychiatric disorders: an exploratory comparative study
BT Woods, S Brennan, D Yurgelun-Todd, T Young and P Panzarino
Department of Neurology, McLean Hospital, Belmont MA, USA.
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.
