A postmortem quantitative study of iron in the globus pallidus of schizophrenic patients.

Several postmortem studies have reported the presence and probable overabundance of basal ganglia mineralization in schizophrenic patients. In order to study this problem in a quantitative fashion we analyzed the mineral content of the globus pallidus in 9 schizophrenic patients and 10 age-matched controls with a Loats computer image analysis system. No significant differences were noted between schizophrenic patients and controls in regard to gender, age, or mineral content of the globus pallidus. The mean content of iron per internal segment of globus pallidus was greater in schizophrenic patients, but the large variation and small number of patients in our sample may have accounted for the negative findings.