Amygdala volume in schizophrenia: post-mortem study and review of magnetic resonance imaging findings
Chance SA., Esiri MM., Crow TJ.
<jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Claims that schizophrenia is a disease of the limbic system have been strengthened by meta-analyses of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies finding reduced hippocampus and amygdala volumes. Some post-mortem studies do not find these abnormalities.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Aims</jats:title><jats:p>To assess the volume of the amygdala in a series of brains post-mortem.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Method</jats:title><jats:p>Amygdala volume was estimated using point-counting in both hemispheres of the brains of 10 male and 8 female patients with schizophrenia, and a comparison group of 9 males and 9 females.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>No significant reduction of amygdala volume was found.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>Significant volume reduction of the amygdala is not a consistent feature of schizophrenia; findings from early MRI studies using coarse delineation methods may introduce bias to subsequent meta-analyses.</jats:p></jats:sec>