Biological Psychiatry
Volume 33, Issue 4 , Pages 236-246, 15 February 1993

Hippocampus-amygdala volumes and psychopathology in chronic schizophrenia☆

  • Bernhard Bogerts

      Affiliations

    • From the Department of Psychiatry, Hillside Hospital Division of Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Glen Oaks, New York, USA
    • Department of Psychiatry, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
    • ,
  • Jeffrey A. Lieberman

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress reprint request to Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, Hillside Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, P.O. Box 38, Glen Oaks, NY 11004.
    • From the Department of Psychiatry, Hillside Hospital Division of Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Glen Oaks, New York, USA
    • ,
  • Manzar Ashtari

      Affiliations

    • Department of Radiology, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New Hyde Park, New York, USA
    • ,
  • Robert M. Bilder

      Affiliations

    • From the Department of Psychiatry, Hillside Hospital Division of Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Glen Oaks, New York, USA
    • ,
  • Gustav Degreef

      Affiliations

    • From the Department of Psychiatry, Hillside Hospital Division of Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Glen Oaks, New York, USA
    • ,
  • Gail Lerner

      Affiliations

    • From the Department of Psychiatry, Hillside Hospital Division of Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Glen Oaks, New York, USA
    • ,
  • Celeste Johns

      Affiliations

    • From the Department of Psychiatry, Hillside Hospital Division of Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Glen Oaks, New York, USA
    • ,
  • Steven Masiar

      Affiliations

    • From the Department of Psychiatry, Hillside Hospital Division of Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Glen Oaks, New York, USA

Received 16 October 1991; received in revised form 30 September 1992

Abstract 

Volumes of the mesiotemporal structures (hippocampus-amygdala complex) were measured in 19 men who were chronic multipisode schizophrenics and 18 age-matched healthy controls using T1-weighted contiguous coronal magnetic resonance images of 3.1-mm width. Using the level of the mammillary bodies as an antomical landmark, the whole hippocampus-amygdala complex was divided into an anterior section (mainly containing amygdaloid tissue) and a posterior section (mainly containing the hippocampal formation).

Total mesiotemporal tissue volume was reduced significantly in the patient group compared to controls (−11%), with significant reductions in both left (−20%) and right (−15%) hippocampal sections. Reduced limbic tissue volume was associated with increased severity of psychopathology. Severity of positive psychotic symptoms (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale [BPRS] psychosis factor) was correlated significantly with right and left total mesiotemporal volumes (Spearman rho's = −0.61 p < 0.01). Negative symptom scores (BPRS anergia factor, Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms [SANS] global items) were not significantly correlated with any mesiotemporal tissue volumes.

The data corroborate and extend previous findings of temporolimbic structure volume reduction in schizophrenia, and suggest that the positive psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia are associated with anatomic anomalies in mesiotemporal structure.

Keywords:  Schizophrenia, MRI, brain morphology, neuropathology, psychopathology

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☆ This work was supported in part by USPHS grants MH00537 and MH41646 to Dr. Lieberman and the MHCRC of Hillside Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine MH41960 and was performed in collaboration with the Center for Brain Morphology and Image Analysis of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert einstein College of Medicine supported by the Helen and Irving Schneider Family.

PII: 0006-3223(93)90289-P

Biological Psychiatry
Volume 33, Issue 4 , Pages 236-246, 15 February 1993

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