[Computer tomography of the brain in psychiatric patients. Comparison with other indices of organic changes]

A group of 80 psychiatric patients--40 males and 40 females--aged 13 to 72--were examined in order to compare the results of computer tomography (CT) of the brain with indicators of organic changes obtained from EEG, psychological and neurological tests. The most frequent organic pathology present in the computer tomography was brain atrophy, displayed in 40 patients (50% of the examined) and constituting the only change in 29 patients (36% of the examined, including 19 males and 10 females). The comparison of 29 patients with brain atrophy with those with normal CT revealed that the former produced pathological EEG more frequently. However, it did not indicate any predominance of pathological results of psychological and neurological examination, neither did it show one of defined psychopathological image. Within the group of "other organic pathology", the most frequent abnormality was hyperostosis frontalis interna. It was present in 6 persons, including 5 females, and was usually associated with brain atrophy and pathological results of psychopathological tests. Other abnormalities found in the "other group of organic changes" included celebral tumours, hydromas, ischenic foci and inherited defects of the brain. No explicit relationship between the CT and the indicators of organic changes was found in this group.