Original articlePituitary Volume Predicts Future Transition to Psychosis in Individuals at Ultra-High Risk of Developing Psychosis
Section snippets
Subjects
We studied 143 subjects: 49 healthy control subjects and 94 UHR individuals. All were screened for comorbid medical and psychiatric conditions by clinical assessment and physical and neurological examination. Exclusion criteria were a history of significant head injury or seizures, electroconvulsive therapy during the 6 months before the scan, polydipsia, neurological diseases, impaired thyroid function, asthma, diabetes, steroid use, or DSM-IV criteria of alcohol or substance abuse or
Characteristics of the Sample
The main baseline demographic data and clinical features of control subjects, UHR-P subjects (n = 31), and UHR-NP subjects (n = 63) are presented in Table 1. There were no significant differences in age or gender among the three groups. Baseline SANS and HRSD scores, but not BPRS and HDRA scores, were higher in UHR-P subjects.
Pituitary Volumes
There was a significant difference in pituitary volume between the three groups [ANOVA: F(2,141) = 5.8, p = .004] (Figure 2). Although the examination of the individual
Discussion
Our results indicate that the prodromal phase leading to psychosis is associated with a larger size of the pituitary gland. We have examined subjects at “ultra-high risk” of developing psychosis, at a stage at which those who later develop psychosis and those who do not develop psychosis are very similar from a psychopathological point of view. We found that UHR subjects who go on to develop psychosis have larger baseline pituitary volumes than subjects who do not later develop psychosis.
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