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White matter abnormalities in children with and at risk for bipolar disorder

Jean A Frazier1, Janis L Breeze, George Papadimitriou

  • 1Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. jfrazier@challiance.org

Bipolar Disorders
|December 14, 2007
PubMed

Insights

Children with bipolar disorder (BPD) show white matter (WM) abnormalities, specifically reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) in key brain tracts. These WM differences in the superior longitudinal fasciculus I (SLF I) may be a trait marker for BPD risk.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroimaging
  • Child Psychiatry
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • White matter (WM) abnormalities may precede the onset of bipolar disorder (BPD) in children.
  • Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) is a key tool for assessing WM integrity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate potential WM abnormalities in children with BPD compared to healthy controls (HC) and at-risk children (AR-BPD).
  • To identify if observed WM differences represent trait-based markers or disease-state indicators in pediatric BPD.

Main Methods:

  • DT-MRI scans were performed on children with BPD (n=10), HC (n=8), and AR-BPD (n=7).
  • Fractional anisotropy (FA) values were compared between groups to identify significant differences (p < 0.05).

Main Results:

  • Children with BPD exhibited reduced FA in bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus I (SLF I) compared to HC.
  • Reduced FA was also observed in the cingulate-paracingulate WM (CG-PAC(WM)) and corpus callosum in the BPD group.
  • Both BPD and AR-BPD groups showed reduced FA in bilateral SLF I compared to HC.

Conclusions:

  • Reduced FA in bilateral SLF I in both BPD and AR-BPD groups may indicate a trait-based marker or endophenotype for BPD.
  • Decreased FA in the right and left CG-PAC(WM) in the BPD group compared to others may suggest a disease-state finding.
Abstract

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