REDUCED BASAL GANGLIA VOLUMES IN TRICHOTILLOMANIA MEASURED VIA MORPHOMETRIC MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING

A morphometric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study compared volumes of brain structures in 10 female subjects with trichotillomania (repe titive hair-pulling) versus 10 normal controls matched for sex, age, h andedness, and education. Three-dimensional MRI scans were blindly nor malized and segmented using well-characterized semiautomated intensity and differential contour algorithms by signal intensity-frequency his tograms. Consistent with one a priori hypothesis, left putamen volume was found to be significantly smaller in trichotillomania subjects as compared with normal matched controls. This is the first report of a s tructural brain abnormality in trichotillomania. Results are discussed in terms of putative relationships between trichotillomania, Tourette 's syndrome, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. (C) 1997 Society of Bi ological Psychiatry.