Pituitary volumes are reduced in patients with somatization disorder.

Objective: Despite of the suggested physiological relationship between somatoform disorder and disturbances in HPA axis function no volumetric study of pituitary volumes in somatization disorder has been carried out. Therefore, we aimed to use structural MRI to evaluate the pituitary volumes of the patients with somatization disorder.

Methods: Eighteen female patients with somatization disorder according to DSM-IV and same number of healthy controls were included into the study.

Hippocampus and amygdalar volumes in patients with somatization disorder.

In regard to somatization disorder which covers an important section of our patient population, there is no systematic structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study in the literature. Therefore, we aimed to use structural MRI to evaluate the hippocampus amygdalar complex which is associated with both stress and regulation of emotion that are main basis clinical presentation of somatization disorder in the patients with somatization disorder. Totally 40 subjects (20 patients with somatization disorder and 20 healthy controls) were enrolled.