Cerebral white matter lesions and affective episodes correlate in male individuals with bipolar disorder

Abstract

Background Cerebral white matter lesions (WML) have been found in normal aging, vascular disease and several neuropsychiatric conditions. Correlations of WML with clinical parameters in BD have been described, but not with the number of affective episodes, illness duration, age of onset and Body Mass Index in a well characterized group of euthymic bipolar adults. Herein, we aimed to evaluate the associations between bipolar course of illness parameters and WML measured with volumetric analysis. Methods In a cross-sectional study 100 euthymic individuals with BD as well as 54 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled to undergo brain magnetic resonance imaging using 3T including a FLAIR sequence for volumetric assessment of WML-load using FSL-software. Additionally, clinical characteristics and psychometric measures including Structured Clinical Interview according to DSM-IV, Hamilton-Depression, Young Mania Rating Scale and Beck's Depression Inventory were evaluated. Results Individuals with BD had significantly more (F = 3.968, p < .001) as well as depressive episodes (r = 0.51; p < .001) correlated positively with WML-load. Conclusions WML-load strongly correlated with the number of manic episodes in male BD patients, suggesting that men might be more vulnerable to mania in the context of cerebral white matter changes.