Pituitary Volume in Individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder.

Background: There are no volumetric magnetic resonance imaging studies on the pituitary gland in individuals with social anxiety disorder. The present study aimed to investigate pituitary volume in individuals with social anxiety disorder compared to healthy controls due to the correlation between pituitary gland volume and stress response and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and hypothesized that pituitary gland volume would be different in these individuals. Methods: In this study, 21 individuals with social anxiety disorder based on fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and 20 healthy controls were included. Both patient and control groups were scanned with a 1.5-Tesla General Electric (GE) Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner. Pituitary volume was measured with the manual tracing method. Results: The statistical analysis revealed that the mean pituitary gland volume of the individuals with social anxiety disorder was significantly smaller when compared to that of healthy controls, statistically, as presented inTable 1 [594.10±104.56 mm3 for individuals with social anxiety disorder and 818.01±215.25 mm3 for healthy controls] when it was done by using the analysis of covariance controlled for age (F = 12.979, df = 1, P < .001), sex (F = 11.448, df = 1, P < .001), and total brain volume (F = 10.772, df = 1, P < .001), demonstrating that smaller pituitary volume in social anxiety disorder, when compared to healthy subjects, was an important finding independent of age, sex, or total brain volume. Conclusion: We suggest that social anxiety disorder may be associated with smaller pituitary volume, supporting the notion that anxiety itself could reduce the pituitary volume.

Superior Temporal Gyrus Volumes in Patients With Social Anxiety Disorder.

Objective: To determine if superior temporal gyrus volumes are altered in patients with a social anxiety disorder.Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was utilized to determine the superior temporal gyrus volume in 21 patients with a social anxiety disorder and 20 control subjects without a social anxiety disorder. The superior temporal gyrus volumes were measured by manual tracing method. The study was conducted between September 2019 and April 2020.Results: The mean superior temporal gyrus volume for both sides was statistically significantly smaller than that of control subjects (left side: 11.38 ± 0.85 cm3 for patients and 12.73 ± 0.86 cm3 for controls, t=-5.064, P < .001; right side: 11.42 ± 0.84 mm3 for patients and 12.92 ± 0.85 cm3 for controls, t=-5.574, P < .001). Moreover, when comparing volumetric measurements for subregions, we detected that volumes of all subregions were also statistically significantly smaller than those of healthy comparisons (for both sides of the Heschl's gyrus and planum temporale).Conclusions: The study findings suggest that patients with social anxiety disorder seem to have smaller superior temporal gyrus volumes compared to healthy control subjects, although we do not know whether these results were in accordance with functional changes of the same region.

Insula volumes are altered in patients with social anxiety disorder.

OBJECTIVE: In the present study, we aimed at examining the volumes of the insula in more pure patients with a social anxiety disorder. METHODS: We examined twenty-one patients with social anxiety disorder according to DSM-IV and twenty healthy controls. All patients and controls were applied to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Insula volumes were measured by using the manual tracing method in accordance with the standard anatomical atlases and related previous studies on insula volumes. RESULTS: We found that the mean posterior and anterior insula volumes for both sides of patients were statistically significantly reduced compared to those of healthy control subjects. CONCLUSION: Consequently, in the present study, we found that patients with a social anxiety disorder had reduced insula volumes compared to those of healthy control subjects. However, to get strong this finding, novel studies with a larger sample size are required.