An MRI Study of the Caudate Nucleus in Euthymic Bipolar I Disorder

Louise Emsell¹, Camilla Langan¹, Sarah Hehir¹, Helen Casey¹, Wil van der Putten¹, Peter McCarthy¹, Rachel Skinner¹, Dara M. Cannon¹, Colm McDonald¹

Bipolar disorder is a complex illness characterised by extremes of mood. It is likely that subtle changes in neuroanatomy contribute to the underlying aetiopathology of the disorder. This study sought to identify differences in the volume of the caudate nucleus in a prospectively confirmed sample of 59 remitted patients compared to 59 individually age and gender matched healthy controls to identify trait related anatomical changes. We did not find a main of effect of diagnosis. However,we did detect gender differences in caudate volume (F>M),age-related volumetric decrease across the study population and a main effect of family history in patients.