Table 3.

Characteristics of BD patients and unaffected controls.

	Control (20)	Bipolar Patients (20)
Age at death (years)	43.12 ± 3.21	42.25 ± 3.23
Cause of death (Suicide/other)	0/20	15/5
Brain weight (g)	1382.75 ± 23.08	1511.75 ± 37.58
Postmortem interval (h)	30.70 ± 3.03	28.97 ± 3.94
Brain tissue pH	6.44 ± 0.05	6.34 ± 0.05
Sex (Men/Women)	14/6	14/6
Alcohol history (none/positive)	4/16	5/15
Use of Mood stabilizers (none/positive)	0/20	8/12
Use of Psychoactive drugs (none/positive)	14/6	0/20

A total of 5–10 mg wet brain tissue samples were extracted, and element concentrations were determined, as described in the materials and methods. The results are shown in Table 4.