Department of Radiology, Firat University School of Medicine, Elazig, Turkey.
Psychiatry Investig. 2012 Sep;9(3):278-82. doi: 10.4306/pi.2012.9.3.278. Epub 2012 Sep 6.
Despite of the suggested physiological relationship between somatoform disorder and disturbances in HPA axis function no volumetric study of pituitary volumes in somatization disorder has been carried out. Therefore, we aimed to use structural MRI to evaluate the pituitary volumes of the patients with somatization disorder.
Eighteen female patients with somatization disorder according to DSM-IV and same number of healthy controls were included into the study. All subjects were scanned using a 1.5-T General Electric (GE; Milwaukee, USA) scanner. Pituitary volume measurements were determined by using manuallly tracings according to standard antomical atlases.
It was found significantly smaller pituitary volumes of the whole group of somatization patients compared to healthy (t=-3.604, p=0.001). ANCOVA predicting pituitary volumes demonstrated a significant main effect of diagnostic group (F=13.530, p<0.001) but TBV (F=1.924, p>0.05) or age (F=1.159, p>0.05). It was determined that there was no significant correlation between smaller pituitary volumes and the duration of illness (r=0.16, p>0.05) in the patient group.
In conclusion, we suggest that the patients with somatization disorder might have significantly smaller pituitary volumes compared to healthy control subjects.
尽管躯体形式障碍与 HPA 轴功能障碍之间存在生理关系的假设，但尚未对躯体化障碍患者的垂体体积进行容积研究。因此，我们旨在使用结构 MRI 评估躯体化障碍患者的垂体体积。
根据 DSM-IV 标准，纳入 18 名女性躯体化障碍患者和相同数量的健康对照者。所有受试者均使用 1.5-T 通用电气（GE；美国密尔沃基）扫描仪进行扫描。通过使用根据标准解剖图谱手动追踪来确定垂体体积测量值。
发现躯体化障碍患者的整个群体的垂体体积明显小于健康对照组（t=-3.604，p=0.001）。预测垂体体积的协方差分析显示诊断组有显著的主要影响（F=13.530，p<0.001），但总脑体积（F=1.924，p>0.05）或年龄（F=1.159，p>0.05）没有影响。在患者组中，确定较小的垂体体积与疾病持续时间之间没有显著相关性（r=0.16，p>0.05）。
总之，我们认为与健康对照组相比，躯体化障碍患者的垂体体积可能明显较小。
