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Hat Size in Schizophrenia-Reply

1987; American Medical Association; Volume: 44; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1001/archpsyc.1987.01800190094018

1538-3636

James C. Ehrhardt,

Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications

To the Editor.— When we initially obtained the results concerning cranial, cerebral, and frontal lobe size that were reported in the February 1986 issue of theARCHIVES, we were puzzled and even slightly embarrassed by the cranial measures. The criticisms suggested in the preceding letters also occurred to us: MRI is a costly and cumbersome way to measure cranial size (although it is almost never traumatic), and the implication that something as simple as head size might have pathologic meaning seems unduly simple-minded. We examined all sources of artifact that we could think of (eg, height and weight), and concluded that these did not explain the findings. We then had two choices: to report the findings so that others could attempt to replicate them (since they were potentially of important pathologic significance), or to report only the frontal and cerebral findings. After some thought, we concluded that we were scientifically obligated to