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Healthy Comparison Subjects (healthy + comparison_subject)
Selected AbstractsSmaller amygdala is associated with anxiety in patients with panic disorderPSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCES, Issue 3 2009Fumi Hayano phd Aims:, Anxiety a core feature of panic disorder, is linked to function of the amygdala. Volume alterations in the brain of patients with panic disorder have previously been reported, but there has been no report of amygdala volume association with anxiety. Methods:, Volumes of hippocampus and amygdala were manually measured using magnetic resonance imaging obtained from 27 patients with panic disorder and 30 healthy comparison subjects. In addition the amygdala was focused on, applying small volume correction to optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM). State,Trait Anxiety Inventory and the NEO Personality Inventory Revised were also used to evaluate anxiety. Results:, Amygdala volumes in both hemispheres were significantly smaller in patients with panic disorder compared with control subjects (left: t = ,2.248, d.f. = 55, P = 0.029; right: t = ,2.892, d.f. = 55, P = 0.005). VBM showed that structural alteration in the panic disorder group occurred on the corticomedial nuclear group within the right amygdala (coordinates [x,y,z (mm)]: [26,,6,,16], Z score = 3.92, family-wise error-corrected P = 0.002). The state anxiety was negatively correlated with the left amygdala volume in patients with panic disorder (r = ,0.545, P = 0.016). Conclusions:, These findings suggested that the smaller volume of the amygdala may be associated with anxiety in panic disorder. Of note, the smaller subregion in the amygdala estimated on VBM could correspond to the corticomedial nuclear group including the central nucleus, which may play a crucial role in panic attack. [source] A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of cortical asymmetry in bipolar disorderBIPOLAR DISORDERS, Issue 3 2004Michael P Caligiuri Objectives:, Individuals with bipolar disorder (BPD) exhibit motor, perceptual, and cognitive disturbances involving predominantly right hemisphere dysfunction. This asymmetry has been used to advance the hypothesis that the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder may be related to disturbances of the right cerebral hemisphere. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine hemispheric asymmetries in manic and depressed BPD. A secondary goal of the study was to examine effects of psychotropic medications on blood volume changes in the motor cortices. Methods:, We studied 18 right-handed BPD and 13 right-handed normal healthy comparison subjects. Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) responses in the primary motor area (M1) and supplementary motor area (SMA) of both hemispheres were elicited during reaction time (RT) tasks. Results:, Healthy subjects activated the SMA in a reciprocal fashion with significantly greater activity in the left SMA for right hand trials and the right SMA for left hand trials. Depressed BPD subjects failed to show this normal reciprocity indicating a failure to suppress unwanted activity in the ipsilateral right SMA, whereas manic BPD subjects failed to suppress unwanted ipsilateral SMA activity in both hemispheres. Manic and depressed BPD subjects exhibited greater activity in the left primary motor area suggesting increased cortical excitability. BPD subjects treated with antipsychotics or mood-stabilizing medications exhibited longer RTs, lower BOLD responses in M1 and SMA, and a loss of normal hemispheric asymmetry in the SMA than untreated subjects. Conclusions:, The presence of a right hemisphere disturbance in BPD is consistent with the hypothesis that the right hemisphere may be dominant in mood regulation. The presence of both left and right hemisphere disturbances in mania may explain the coexisting psychotic and affective symptoms observed in this condition. [source] Verbal memory in mania: effects of clinical state and task requirementsBIPOLAR DISORDERS, Issue 5 2003David E Fleck Objectives: Manic patients exhibit impaired verbal learning and memory, particularly following longstanding illness. However, it is unclear whether recognition and recall performance are differentially influenced by a manic mood state. Methods: To examine this issue, we administered the California Verbal Learning Test and symptom-rating scales to inpatients with pure or mixed mania, euthymic outpatients, and healthy comparison subjects. Results: An overall performance difference was identified between groups. Manic and euthymic patients performed more poorly than healthy subjects on recall. However, manic patients performed more poorly than euthymic patients and healthy subjects on recognition. Conclusions: These results suggest that verbal retrieval deficits are stable vulnerability indicators in bipolar disorder, whereas verbal encoding deficits are manic episode indicators. The known subcortical dysfunction in this disorder may produce stable retrieval deficits while acute mood symptoms attenuate encoding during affective episodes only. [source] Persistent attentional dysfunction in remitted bipolar disorderBIPOLAR DISORDERS, Issue 2 2001Kelly E Wilder-Willis Objectives: Although previous research has shown that attentional dysfunction is common during acute mood episodes in individuals with bipolar disorder (BPD), few studies have examined whether attentional deficits are evident during periods of symptom stability. The goal of this study was to determine whether clinically stable individuals with BPD would have attentional disturbances relative to healthy subjects. Methods: Fourteen patients with BPD and 12 healthy comparison subjects participated in the study, and were administered the Degraded Stimulus Continuous Performance Test (DSCPT), Digit Span Distractibility Test (DSDT) and Grooved Pegboard Test (GPT). Psychiatric symptoms were assessed with the Young Mania Rating Scale and the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms. Medication side effects were measured with the Simpson Rating Scale. Results: The patient group responded significantly more slowly than the control group on the DSCPT (z=,2.52, p=0.01) and the GPT (z=,3.37, p=0.001). There was a trend towards the BPD patients demonstrating impaired perceptual sensitivity on the DSCPT (z=1.68, p=0.09). The two groups did not differ on the DSDT (z=,1.06, p=0.3). Poor performance on the GPT and DSCPT target reaction time were not associated with symptom ratings or medications. Conclusion: The findings suggest that impairments in fine motor skills and reaction time may be present in clinically stable patients with BPD, even after accounting for psychiatric symptoms and medication effects. Performance decrements on attentional tasks may be in part reflective of motor impairments in patients with BPD. [source] Neuroimaging in bipolar disorderBIPOLAR DISORDERS, Issue 3 2000Stephen M Strakowski Objective: The authors reviewed neuroimaging studies of bipolar disorder in order to evaluate how this literature contributes to the current understanding of the neurophysiology of the illness. Method: Papers were reviewed as identified, using the NIMH PubMed literature search systems that reported results of neuroimaging studies involving a minimum of five bipolar disorder patients compared with healthy comparison subjects. Results: Structural neuroimaging studies report mixed results for lateral and third ventriculomegaly. Recent studies suggest subcortical structural abnormalities in the striatum and amygdala, as well as the prefrontal cortex. Proton spectroscopic studies suggest that abnormalities in choline metabolism exist in bipolar disorder, particularly in the basal ganglia. Additionally, phosphorous MRS suggests that there may be abnormalities in frontal phospholipid metabolism in bipolar disorder. Functional studies have identified affective state-related changes in cerebral glucose metabolism and blood flow, particularly in the prefrontal cortex during depression, but no clear abnormalities specific to bipolar disorder have been consistently observed. Conclusions: The current literature examining the neurophysiology of bipolar disorder using neuroimaging is limited. Nonetheless, abnormalities in specific frontal-subcortical brain circuits seem likely. Additional targeted studies are needed to capitalize on this burgeoning technology to advance our understanding of the neurophysiology of bipolar disorder. [source] | ||||||||||