Cavum septum pellucidum in schizophrenia, affective disorder and healthy controls: a magnetic resonance imaging study

Many structural brain abnormalities have been described in schizophrenia, consistent with a neurodevelopmental model for this disease. We report here a study of the cavum septum pellucidum (CSP) in schizophrenia compared to control groups, as well as the clinical correlates of this congenital anomaly in schizophrenia. We conducted a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study to compare rates of CSP in schizophrenia (N = 67) v. psychiatric controls (bipolar and schizoaffective, N = 60) and healthy controls (N = 37). Of the controls 18.9%, and of all psychotic subjects 18.1% had a CSP of any size and there was no difference in the frequency of large CSP among the groups. Males had higher rates of CSP than females (25% v. 9.7%, P = 0.01) in all groups. Schizophrenics had higher CSP rates than affective patients (25%, v. 10%, P = 0.02). No clinical difference was found between schizophrenics with or without CSP.