There are many diseases of the basal ganglia, all considered neurological, that have psychiatric symptoms. One was named after an American doctor named Huntington who proved that it was genetic. Another was named after a British doctor named Parkinson, who called the disease the "shaking palsy". Both of these terrible diseases have movement abnormalities in addition to the psychiatric symptoms.
The list is longer than this, including Wilson's disease, familial basal ganglia calcification, etc. In each disease neuropathologists have found positive results in the basal ganglia. The fact that there are no abnormal movements in most cases of schizophrenia and affective disorders may mean that the psychiatric diseases either are located in subcortical nuclei near the basal ganglia or that there is a biochemical abnormality similar to the dopamine error of Parkinson's disease. The calcium error in familial basal ganglia calcification and the copper excess in Wilson's disease may poison the dopamine neurons found in the basal ganglia. The etiology of Huntington's chorea is not yet known, unfortunately.
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This clipart from the WUSTL educational website shows a schematic of the basal ganglia. I have just discovered this treasure of a website, so I don't know much about it yet.
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For centuries scientists have studied the gross anatomy of the brain, but with limited results. Much more can be learned with the microscope.
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This is a neuron. The basal ganglia consist mainly of grey matter. The neuron shown does not have a myelin sheath, which is seen in white matter. The white matter looks white because myelin sheaths are white. Neurons without myelin sheaths are grey.
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This photo of the brilliant American neurologist Walter Bruetsch is shown courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.
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The cover of the psychiatry book is from Alibris. I do not sell the book, but Alibris does. I am simply showing what is available. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors include tranylcypromine, isocarboxazid, selgiline, etc. These drugs inhibit the enzyme MAO. MAO is involved in the metabolism of dopamine and its metabolites. Thus a shortage of MAO would lead to an excess of amines.
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This is Dr. George Huntington, who was born in 1850 and died in 1916. His famous paper on chorea was published in 1872. He was one of the few American doctors who had a disease named after him. Later on Dr. Harvey Cushing of the US had a disease named after him.
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Shown here is Wilder Penfield, a brilliant American brain scientist. Penfield was born in 1891 and died in 1976.
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Shown here is Bruetsch in 1932, again courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.
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Shown here is Dr. Walter Freeman in 1948. Freeman started out as a brilliant neuropathologist, but then turned to lobotomy. He thought that if the connections between the frontal lobes and the more primitive parts of the brain were severed, this would help mental illness. Unfortunately this treatment was a disastrous failure. The picture is courtesy of the NLM.
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The cover of this book was obtained from the Alibris website, which sells the book. Psychiatric drugs are considered to act on the basal ganglia by altering dopamine metabolism. The Parkinsonian side effects of many of these drugs suggest this because Parkinson's disease is known to be in the basal ganglia. A number of medications can cause mania or depression, according to The American Psychiatric Press Textbook of Psychiatry, Third Edition. These include methyldopa (which can cause psychosis), monoamine oxidase inhibitors (which can also cause psychosis), amphetamine-like drugs, etc. Anabolic steroids can also cause psychosis, but these are endocrinology drugs.
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