Morphometry of the amygdala in schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder

Volumetric studies suggest smaller amygdalae in subjects with schizophrenia (SZ) than with bipolar disorder (BP). We use morphometry to identify subregions of amygdala differentially affected in SZ and psychotic BP. Based on template centered population analysis, the shape of the amygdala in psychotic BP differs from SZ (pleft = 0.044, pright = 0.042). Using a high-field 7 T atlas, the bilateral basolateral, basomedial and centromedial subregions and the right lateral subregion were significantly atrophied in SZ compared to psychotic BP (p < 0.02). These results suggest that change in shape of amygdala may represent a morphologic feature distinguishing SZ from psychotic BP.