Partial Empty Sella and Psychiatric Illness - Casual or Correlated? A Case Series

Abrar Poonekar

Abstract: The condition known as empty sella syndrome (ESS) occurs when pituitary gland is shrunk or flattens. The pituitary gland is contained in sella turcica, an area at the skull base. When this gland is shrunk or flattens it is not visible on the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) appearing like an empty sella. Partial empty sella is when part of the gland is seen on the MRI. It is usually asymptomatic and mostly is an incidental finding. When symptomatic, it manifests with endocrine abnormalities, headache and psychiatric manifestations. Not much is known about the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders. Studies have mentioned that ESS and psychiatric disorders could be from the same genetic origin. In this case series we present three patients with partial empty sella turcica who presented with psychiatric illnesses, among these two had Psychosis and one Anxiety disorder.

Keywords: Empty Sella Syndrome, Psychiatric illness, Schizophrenia