1. ¹Department of Military Psychiatry, Central Military Hospital, Utrecht, The Netherlands
2. ²Department of Psychiatry, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Utrecht, The Netherlands
3. ³Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Radiology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA
4. ⁴Center for Positron Emission Tomography, Decatur, GA, USA
5. ⁵Atlanta VAMC, Decatur, GA, USA

Correspondence: E Geuze, Department of Military Psychiatry, Central Military Hospital and Department of Psychiatry, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Mailbox B.01.2.06, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584 CX Utrecht, The Netherlands. E-mail: s.g.geuze@azu.nl

Received 26 February 2004; Revised 25 May 2004; Accepted 28 June 2004; Published online 7 September 2004.

Abstract

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has opened a new window to the brain. Measuring hippocampal volume with MRI has provided important information about several neuropsychiatric disorders. We reviewed the literature and selected all English-language, human subject, data-driven papers on hippocampal volumetry, yielding a database of 423 records. Smaller hippocampal volumes have been reported in epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, mild cognitive impairment, the aged, traumatic brain injury, cardiac arrest, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Cushing's disease, herpes simplex encephalitis, Turner's syndrome, Down's syndrome, survivors of low birth weight, schizophrenia, major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, chronic alcoholism, borderline personality disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. Significantly larger hippocampal volumes have been correlated with autism and children with fragile X syndrome. Preservation of hippocampal volume has been reported in congenital hyperplasia, children with fetal alcohol syndrome, anorexia nervosa, attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, and panic disorder. Possible mechanisms of hippocampal volume loss in neuropsychiatric disorders are discussed.