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Pituitary volumes in relatives of bipolar patients

High-risk study

  • ORIGINAL PAPER
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European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Increased, decreased, as well as unchanged pituitary volumes have been reported in bipolar disorders (BD). It is unclear, whether abnormal pituitary volumes increase vulnerability for BD (primary vulnerability marker), or are secondary to burden of illness. To address this question, we performed the first high-risk study of pituitary volumes in affected and unaffected relatives of bipolar subjects.

Method

High-risk participants (age range 15–30 years) were recruited from families multiply affected with BD and included 24 unaffected, 19 affected subjects with first or second degree bipolar I or II relative, matched by age and sex with 31 controls without a personal or family history of psychiatric disorders. Pituitary volumes were measured on 1.5 T 3D anatomical MRI images using standard methods.

Results

We found comparable pituitary volumes among unaffected, affected relatives of bipolar patients and controls. There were no differences in pituitary volumes between male and female subjects nor was there any sex by group interaction. Analyzing 26 participants with bipolar I parent or excluding 5 medicated subjects did not change the results. There were no differences between subjects from families containing bipolar I versus families containing only bipolar II subjects.

Conclusions

The lack of abnormalities in unaffected and also affected subjects early in the course of illness in our study, as well as previous investigations of bipolar and familial unipolar children and adolescents, suggest that pituitary volume abnormalities are unlikely to be a primary risk factor for mood disorders.

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Acknowledgments

Supported by NARSAD Young Investigator Award to Dr. Hajek and grants from the Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Capital District Health Authority. None of the authors has any conflict of interest to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Room 3089, QEII HSC, A.J. Lane Bldg 5909 Veteran’s Memorial Lane, B3H 2E2, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Tomas Hajek MD, PhD, Claire Slaney RN, Lukas Propper MD & Martin Alda MD

  2. Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Eva Gunde BSc

  3. Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Denise Bernier BSc

  4. Department of Psychiatry, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Glenda MacQueen MD, PhD

  5. Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Anne Duffy MD & Martin Alda MD

  6. Prague Psychiatric Center, Charles University, 3rd Faculty of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic

    Tomas Hajek MD, PhD

Authors
  1. Tomas Hajek MD, PhD
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  2. Eva Gunde BSc
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  3. Denise Bernier BSc
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  4. Claire Slaney RN
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  5. Lukas Propper MD
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  6. Glenda MacQueen MD, PhD
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  7. Anne Duffy MD
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  8. Martin Alda MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Alda MD.

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Hajek, T., Gunde, E., Bernier, D. et al. Pituitary volumes in relatives of bipolar patients. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosc 258, 357–362 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-008-0804-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-008-0804-0

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