Caetano S C, Sassi R, Brambilla P, Harenski K, Nicoletti M, Mallinger A G, Frank E, Kupfer D J, Keshavan M S, Soares J C
Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3282, USA.
Psychiatry Res. 2001 Dec 30;108(3):161-8. doi: 10.1016/s0925-4927(01)00123-8.
The thalamus is a key structure in brain anatomic circuits potentially involved in the pathophysiology of mood disorders. Available findings from studies that examined this brain region in mood disorder patients have been conflicting. To examine the hypothesis of anatomical abnormalities in the thalamus in patients with mood disorders, we conducted a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study in 25 bipolar patients (mean age+/-S.D.=34.4+/-9.8 years), 17 unipolar patients (mean age+/-S.D.=42.8+/-9.2 years), and 39 healthy control subjects (mean age+/-S.D.=36.6+/-9.7 years). Thalamic volumes Gray Matter were measured blindly with a semi-automated technique. Multivariate analysis of variance, with age and gender as covariates, revealed no significant differences in left or right thalamic volumes among bipolar patients, unipolar patients and healthy individuals. There were no significant effects of gender, age at illness onset, episode type, number of episodes, length of illness, or family history of mood disorders on thalamic measurements. Although functional abnormalities in the thalamus are likely to be implicated in the pathophysiology of mood disorders, no abnormalities in thalamic size appear present in bipolar or unipolar individuals.
丘脑是大脑解剖回路中的关键结构，可能与情绪障碍的病理生理学有关。对情绪障碍患者的这一脑区进行研究的现有发现相互矛盾。为了检验情绪障碍患者丘脑存在解剖学异常的假设，我们对25名双相情感障碍患者（平均年龄±标准差=34.4±9.8岁）、17名单相情感障碍患者（平均年龄±标准差=42.8±9.2岁）和39名健康对照者（平均年龄±标准差=36.6±9.7岁）进行了一项磁共振成像（MRI）研究。采用半自动技术对丘脑灰质体积进行盲测。以年龄和性别作为协变量的多变量方差分析显示，双相情感障碍患者、单相情感障碍患者和健康个体之间左、右丘脑体积无显著差异。性别、发病年龄、发作类型、发作次数、病程长度或情绪障碍家族史对丘脑测量结果均无显著影响。虽然丘脑的功能异常可能与情绪障碍的病理生理学有关，但双相或单相个体的丘脑大小似乎没有异常。
