Schizophrenia

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Schizophrenia

Diagnosis, Imaging, and Screening

NEWS:

Brain abnormalities seen in sibs of schizophrenics "Younger, healthy siblings of patients with schizophrenia show significant brain abnormalities, researchers report in the Archives of General Psychiatry. However, these abnormalities may only be temporary."

MRI reveals early brain changes linked to schizophrenia

Schizophrenic patients who hear voices demonstrate abnormalities in voice-processing brain regions "MRI has helped researchers identify structural and functional abnormalities in the brains of people experiencing schizophrenic auditory hallucinations. The defects clustered in areas of the brain responsible for processing voices. … The authors suggest that overactivation and corresponding gray matter deficits in the limbic and frontal brain of schizophrenics reflects a dysfunctional emotional response to spoken words. The study was published in the August issue of Radiology …"

ARTICLES:

JOURNAL ARTICLES:

18FDG PET in hallucinating and non-hallucinating patients. (Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2007) " CONCLUSIONS: The observed functional recruitment of the right prefrontal cortex in subjects with high hallucination score may reflect impairment in the integration of intended actions and sensory feedback resulting in misattribution of internal events to an external source. This mechanism may form the cognitive basis for AVH."

A diffusion tensor imaging study of structural dysconnectivity in never-medicated, first-episode schizophrenia. (Psychol Med. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS: Widespread structural dysconnectivity, including the subcortical region, is already present in neuroleptic-naive patients in their first episode of illness."

A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study of White Matter in Early-Onset Schizophrenia. (Biol Psychiatry. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS: Parietal and cerebellar white matter abnormalities may contribute to the emergence of psychotic symptoms in adolescence."

Abnormalities of cingulate gyrus neuroanatomy in schizophrenia. (Schizophr Res. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with schizophrenia showed smaller gray matter volumes across the entire cingulate gyrus, mostly due to a reduction in cortical mantle thickness. However, structural measures of the AC were more closely related to clinical features of the illness."

Anterior cingulate volumes in schizophrenia: A systematic review and a meta-analysis of MRI studies. (Schizophr Res. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS: Our work confirmed the presence of abnormally reduced anterior cingulate volumes in schizophrenia."

Are schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder neuropsychologically distinguishable? (Schizophr Res. 2007)

Brain structural changes in schizophrenia patients with persistent hallucinations. (Psychiatry Res. 2007) "These findings support the proposition that there are structural changes in the neural circuits underlying broader processing of affect-laden information in patients with schizophrenia prone to experiencing auditory hallucinations. Such deficits may obscure important cues for recognition of internal speech, contributing to failures of self-monitoring."

Caudate volume in offspring of patients with schizophrenia. (Br J Psychiatry. 2007) " … new evidence that caudate volume reduction may be a trait-related abnormality in schizophrenia."

Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus and Working Memory in Recent-Onset Schizophrenia. (Biol Psychiatry. 2007) "These findings support the view that schizophrenia is a disorder of brain connectivity and implicate white matter changes detectable in the early phases of the illness as one source of this dysfunction."

Early prodromal symptoms and diagnoses before first psychotic episode in 219 inpatients with schizophrenia. (Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2007) "The authors examined the diagnosis before the onset of schizophrenia and retrospectively evaluated the presence/absence of early prodromal symptoms (EPS) … A diagnosis was made before the onset of schizophrenia in 53 patients (24.2%). The diagnoses were mood disorder in 39 patients, anxiety disorder in seven, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in three, adjustment disorder in two, and eating disorder in two. EPS were present in 65 (29.7%) of all patients, slightly more frequent in female patients (male : female = 1:1.41). In the group with EPS, depressive symptoms (61.5%) were most frequently observed, followed by anxiety symptoms (23.1%) and OC symptoms (9.2%). The age at onset for each type of symptom was significantly lower for OC symptoms (14.5 +/- 2.4 years) than for the other symptoms (approx. 20 years). The mean period from the onset of each symptom to that of schizophrenia was the shortest for depressive symptoms (2.7 +/- 3.1 years) and the longest (>4 years) for OC symptoms."

Evidence for neuronal dysfunction in the anterior cingulate of patients with schizophrenia: A proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study at 3 T. (Schizophr Res. 2007)

Fractal dimension analysis of MR images reveals grey matter structure irregularities in schizophrenia. (Comput Med Imaging Graph. 2007)

Frontal and temporal volume size of grey and white matter in patients with schizophrenia : An MRI parcellation study. (Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2007) "These results suggest that volume reduction in the cerebrum is prominent in the frontal and temporal lobes in both men and women with schizophrenia."

Grey matter abnormalities in first-episode schizophrenia and affective psychosis. (Br J Psychiatry Suppl. 2007)

Heritability of Brain Morphology Related to Schizophrenia: A Large-Scale Automated Magnetic Resonance Imaging Segmentation Study. (Biol Psychiatry. 2007)

Increased Prefrontal Gyrification in a Large High-Risk Cohort Characterizes Those Who Develop Schizophrenia and Reflects Abnormal Prefrontal Development. (Biol Psychiatry. 2007) "RESULTS: High-risk individuals who subsequently developed schizophrenia were distinguished from the remaining cohort by increased right prefrontal cortex (PFC) A-GI. Mean right PFC gray matter volume also differed between groups, but white matter volume did not. Correlations of age with gray and white matter further distinguished groups and a linear regression analysis showed a significant interaction between age and diagnosis on mean volume of right PFC white matter. CONCLUSIONS: Increased A-GI appears to indicate abnormal right prefrontal development in those who develop schizophrenia."

Insular volume reduction in schizophrenia. (Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2007)

[Is the schizophrenia diagnosis still appropriate?] (Psychiatr Prax. 2007)

Longitudinal grey-matter and glutamatergic losses in first-episode schizophrenia. (Br J Psychiatry. 2007)

MRI brain volume abnormalities in young, nonpsychotic relatives of schizophrenia probands are associated with subsequent prodromal symptoms. (Schizophr Res. 2007) "Schizophrenia is characterized by subtle but well-replicated total and regional (frontal and temporal) brain tissue volume deficits. Studies of individuals at-risk for developing schizophrenia suggest that the onset of brain volume decrement may closely pre-date overt manifestations of schizophrenia, making brain volume abnormalities potential predictors for early identification. … Together with previous genetic high-risk studies of adolescent or young adult relatives, these findings indicate that premorbid MRI brain abnormalities may be of predictive value for the early identification of schizophrenia."

Neocortical Gray Matter Volume in First-Episode Schizophrenia and First-Episode Affective Psychosis: A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal MRI Study. (Biol Psychiatry. 2007)

Neurological abnormalities in Chinese schizophrenic patients. (Behav Neurol. 2007)

Neuron Numbers and Volume of the Amygdala in Subjects Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder or Schizophrenia. (Biol Psychiatry. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS: These findings offer structural evidence for an involvement of the amygdala in BD. Consequent loss of amygdalar function may account for abnormalities in emotion processing typical of BD subjects. In contrast, changes in SZ were limited and may have been induced by pharmacologic treatment."

Patterns of Structural MRI Abnormalities in Deficit and Nondeficit Schizophrenia. (Schizophr Bull. 2007)

Primary visual cortex volume and total neuron number are reduced in schizophrenia. (J Comp Neurol. 2007) " Subjects with schizophrenia therefore have a smaller cortical area allocated to primary visual perception."

Progressive Brain Volume Loss in Schizophrenia Over the Course of the Illness: Evidence of Maturational Abnormalities in Early Adulthood. (Biol Psychiatry. 2007)

Progressive changes of white matter integrity in schizophrenia revealed by diffusion tensor imaging. (Psychiatry Res. 2007) "Recent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) have suggested reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) in the white matter (WM) of the brain in patients with schizophrenia. We tried to examine whether such reduction in FA exists and whether such changes in FA progress in an age-dependent manner in a Japanese sample of chronic schizophrenia. … Our data confirmed decreased FA in schizophrenics, compared to controls in the widespread WM areas. Such decreased FA values in schizophrenia might be attributable, at least in part, to progressive changes after the onset of the illness."

Reduced planum temporale volume and delusional behaviour in patients with schizophrenia. (Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2007)

Reduction of the Internal Capsule in Families Affected with Schizophrenia. (Biol Psychiatry. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS: A reduced volume of ALIC in affected families supports the hypothesis of disturbed frontothalamic connectivity in schizophrenia and demonstrates functional relevance by an association with reduced neurocognitive performance."

Schizoaffective disorder merges schizophrenia and bipolar disorders as one disease - there is no schizoaffective disorder. (Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2007) "SUMMARY: Schizoaffective disorder unifies schizophrenia and bipolar, blurring the zones of rarity between them and suggesting that schizoaffective disorder is not a separate, 'bona-fide' disease. Patients diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder likely suffer from a psychotic mood disorder. The diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, which can result in substandard treatment, should be eliminated from the diagnostic nomenclature."

Schizophrenia with auditory hallucinations: A voxel-based morphometry study. (Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2007)

Sulcal thickness as a vulnerability indicator for schizophrenia. (Br J Psychiatry. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS: Cingulate and superior temporal sulcal thickness abnormalities may reflect neural abnormalities associated with the genetic liability to schizophrenia. Cortical thinning in these regions suggests that liability genes affect the dendrites, synapses or myelination process during the neurodevelopment of the cortical mantle."

Thalamic shape abnormalities in individuals with schizophrenia and their nonpsychotic siblings. (J Neurosci. 2007)

Volumetric White Matter Abnormalities in First-Episode Schizophrenia: A Longitudinal, Tensor-Based Morphometry Study (Am J Psychiatry 2007)

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