Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018:150:181-196.
doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-63639-3.00014-1.

What can we learn about brain donors? Use of clinical information in human postmortem brain research

Kathleen Sullivan  1 , Harry Pantazopoulos  2 , Elizabeth Liebson  3 , T-U W Woo  4 , Ross J Baldessarini  5 , John Hedreen  1 , Sabina Berretta  6
Affiliations
Review

What can we learn about brain donors? Use of clinical information in human postmortem brain research

Kathleen Sullivan et al. Handb Clin Neurol. 2018.

Abstract

Postmortem studies on the human brain reside at the core of investigations on neurologic and psychiatric disorders. Ground-breaking advances continue to be made on the pathologic basis of many of these disorders, at molecular, cellular, and neural connectivity levels. In parallel, there is increasing emphasis on improving methods to extract relevant demographic and clinical information about brain donors and, importantly, translate it into measures that can reliably and effectively be incorporated in the design and data analysis of postmortem human investigations. Here, we review the main source of information typically available to brain banks and provide examples on how this information can be processed. In particular, we discuss approaches to establish primary and secondary diagnoses, estimate exposure to therapeutic treatment and substance abuse, assess agonal status, and use time of death as a proxy in investigations on circadian rhythms. Although far from exhaustive, these considerations are intended as a contribution to ongoing efforts from tissue banks and investigators aimed at establishing robust, well-validated methods for collecting and standardizing information about brain donors, further strengthening the scientific rigor of human postmortem studies.

Keywords: agonal factors; circadian rhythms; death certificate; medical records; pharmacologic treatment; time of death.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 14.1.
Fig. 14.1.
Correlation between lifetime and 6 months’ exposure to antipsychotics (top: chlorpromazine: CPZ) and (bottom) lithium in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, respectively. Lifetime and 6 months’ exposure before death was estimated according to the algorithm described in this chapter. The box in the graph at the bottom highlights subjects who received between 1 and 8.6 kg of lithium during their lifetime but were no longer exposed at 6 months before death.
Fig. 14.2.
Fig. 14.2.
Suggested time framework for estimates of medication exposure in postmortem studies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Albrecht U (2013). Circadian clocks and mood-related behaviors. Handb Exp Pharmacol: 227–239. - PubMed
    1. Albrecht A, Thiere M, Bergado-Acosta JR et al. (2013). Circadian modulation of anxiety: a role for somatostatin in the amygdala. PLoS One 8: e84668. - PMC - PubMed
    1. American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fourth edition American Psychiatric Association, Arlington, VA.
    1. Ansari N, Agathagelidis M, Lee C et al. (2009). Differential maturation of circadian rhythms in clock gene proteins in the suprachiasmatic nucleus and the pars tuberalis during mouse ontogeny. Eur J Neurosci 29: 477–489. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Auslander LA, Jeste DV (2004). Sustained remission of schizophrenia among community-dwelling older outpatients. Am J Psychiatry 161: 1490–1493. - PubMed