The British Journal of Psychiatry 133: 500-506 (1978)
© 1978 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Size of cerebral ventricles in 66 psychiatric patients
P van Boxel, PK Bridges, JR Bartlett and T Trauer
The routine air ventriculograms of 66 psychiatric patients, aged from 22 to
73 years, taken during the psychosurgical operation of stereotactic
subcaudate tractotomy, were studied. Ventricular size was unrelated to
progressive ageing, but a minority of patients over 60 years had abnormally
large ventricles, not invariably associated with cognitive impairment on
testing. Enlargement was associated with a clinical diagnosis of
schizoaffective illness but not with past ECT.