Sex differences in bipolar disorder: a review of neuroimaging findings and new evidence
Bipolar Disorders, 06/12/2012
Evidence Based Medicine
Clinical Article
Jogia J et al. – Potential sex–by–diagnosis interactions influencing the brain structural and functional correlates of disease expression in bipolar disorder (BD) have received limited attention. The data suggest that the sex of an individual modulates structure and function within subcortical and cortical regions implicated in disease expression.
Methods- The authors conducted a literature review of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies in BD, published between January 1990 and December 2010, reporting on the effects of sex and diagnosis.
- In the absence of any functional MRI (fMRI) studies, this review was supplemented by original data analyses focusing on sex-by-diagnosis interactions on patterns of brain activation obtained during tasks of working memory, incentive decision-making, and facial affect processing.
- The authors found no support for a sex-by-diagnosis interaction in global gray or white matter volume.
- Evidence regarding regional volumetric measures is limited, but points to complex interactions between sex and diagnosis with developmental and temperamental factors within limbic and prefrontal regions.
- Sex-by-diagnosis interactions were noted in the pattern of activation within the basal ganglia during incentive decision-making and within ventral prefrontal regions during facial affect processing.
