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Query: UMLS:C0036341 (schizophrenia)
 60,220 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The MRI scans of 48 schizophrenic patients, fulfilling RDC criteria, were compared to those of 34 healthy controls matched for age, ethnicity and parental social class. The volume of the frontal and anterior parietal lobes was significantly reduced in the schizophrenic group as a result of a selective decrease in cortical volume, with a corresponding increase in the volume of sulcal fluid. Reduction in the volume of the temporal grey matter was more marked on the right, but was not in excess of the loss of volume observed in other areas of the cortex. MRI abnormalities correlated poorly with clinical parameters, although both unemployment and poor pre-morbid adjustment predicted reduced cerebral volume and increased sulcal volume. These results question whether the medial temporal lobes are the only site of structural pathology in schizophrenia.
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PMID:Reduction of cortical volume in schizophrenia on magnetic resonance imaging. 823 67

Many of the structural brain abnormalities found in schizophrenia (SC) and bipolar disorder (BD) over the past decade are believed to represent impaired neurodevelopmental processes. The authors hypothesized that incidental developmental anomalies would be more frequently present in the brains of subjects with SC and BD compared with healthy control subjects. The authors systematically assessed the MRI scans of 167 subjects (SC = 67, BD/schizoaffective = 63, healthy control subjects = 37) for the presence of 23 developmental anomalies involving cortical and subcortical structures. No excess neurodevelopmental anomalies were found in the schizophrenic or bipolar/schizoaffective groups. These findings do not support the hypothesis that SC and BD are associated with an excess of gross neurodevelopmental brain anomalies.
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PMID:Developmental brain anomalies in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: a controlled MRI study. 828 34

Investigations into the neuropathology of schizophrenia have increasingly altered the perception of the illness. Early studies focused on finding consistent and discrete areas of cortical pathology in the brain material of schizophrenic patients. After nearly a half century of study, little evidence emerged from a great body of data suggesting any consistent, discrete neuropathologic finding associated with this illness. This lack of evidence led to obvious frustration on the part of researchers and movement within the psychiatric community towards significantly less brain-based theories of the genesis of schizophrenia. With the advent of new technologies such as enhanced structural imaging (CT, MRI), functional imaging (PET, SPECT), and better neuropathologic methods, the focus of schizophrenia research has again turned towards the brain. Ultimately, hypotheses regarding the cause of schizophrenia will be proved or disproved on neuropathologic evidence. Few, if any, modern schizophrenia researchers would make the argument that there is a single, consistent neuropathologic lesion that is responsible for the entire illness of schizophrenia. Current theories tend to interpret the wide variety of neuropathologic changes in this illness as evidence of disturbed nervous system maturation--either acquired or inherent--or perhaps as a response to damage with aberrant neuronal regeneration. Evidence for a neurodegenerative disorder has not proved to be compelling. Furthermore, these theories emphasize dysfunction of elements of distributed neuronal systems, including subcortical systems, not discrete "lesions." The danger with the theoretic approach of distributed systems is, as Steriade and McCarley noted so well, that the flexibility of this idea can "mean a retreat into vagueness so that hypotheses concerning the role of multiple interrelated structures in the genesis of a given behavioral state cannot be proved wrong." (p 23). Despite the risks, this approach to investigation promises to offer more than just information pertinent to schizophrenia research; it offers insights into the mechanisms of behavior as a product of integrated brain function.
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PMID:The neuropathology of schizophrenia. A focus on the subcortex. 833 65

To investigate a possible association of midline cerebral malformations with psychotic disorders, MRI and CT scans were blindly evaluated for 52 patients with schizophrenia, 9 with schizoaffective disease, and 79 consecutive nonpsychotic control subjects. Midline abnormalities were present in 10 of 61 patients (16.4%) versus 4 of 79 control subjects (5.1%; P < 0.05, chi-square). Of 52 schizophrenic patients, 8 had abnormalities of the septum pellucidum (SP): 5 had cavum vergae (CaV), 2 had cavum septum pellucidum (CaSP), and 1 had agenesis of the corpus callosum and SP. Of 9 schizoaffective patients, 2 had SP abnormalities: 1 CaV and 1 CaSP. Abnormalities of the SP, especially CaV, were significantly more frequent in women than in men (P < 0.02, chi-square).
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PMID:Midline cerebral malformations and schizophrenia. 836 38

The N2 component of the auditory event-related potential (ERP) indexes cognitive processes involved in the categorization of deviant stimuli. Although N2 amplitude and latency abnormalities have been reported in schizophrenia, their relationship to MRI structural changes, clinical status, and P3 abnormalities has not been defined. We therefore studied the auditory N2 and P3 components elicited by an oddball paradigm in 15 right-handed male subjects with schizophrenia and 14 control subjects who had quantitative MRI measures of temporal lobe gray-matter structures. To provide a methodological comparison, we measured the auditory N2 from both the target ERP (N2t) and the target-minus-frequent ERP difference (N2d) waveforms. Both N2t and N2d amplitude were bilaterally reduced in schizophrenics, with N2d showing a more pronounced reduction. Within the schizophrenic group, N2 amplitude reduction was associated with reduction in gray-matter volume of the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) and of medial temporal lobe structures bilaterally, and clinically, with greater chronicity. P3 amplitude, in contrast, correlated only with left posterior STG volume, and was more prominently associated with delusions and thought disorder. These findings suggest that the N2 and P3 components, though occurring sequentially in the ERP, tap separable anatomic and behavioral abnormalities in schizophrenia.
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PMID:The auditory N2 component in schizophrenia: relationship to MRI temporal lobe gray matter and to other ERP abnormalities. 837 37

The hypothesis tested was that, in schizophrenia, corpus callosum size would be reduced, particularly in the region responsible for communication between both temporal lobes. This is supported by knowledge of: (a) anatomical homotopicity and functional specialization of fibres within the corpus callosum; (b) evidence linking structural and functional deficits of the corpus callosum and left temporal lobe with schizophrenia; and (c) that temporal lobe neuronal fibres pass through the middle region of the corpus callosum. Brain area and corpus callosum areas, widths and length were measured on mid-sagittal MRI scans using a computer outlining method. Scans from 30 schizophrenics and 44 normal subjects were compared. Mid-sagittal brain area, corpus callosum area, length and anterior widths were reduced in the schizophrenic group compared with controls. A significant area difference between schizophrenics and controls was seen in the mid-corpus callosum which communicates between the temporal lobes, including the superior temporal gyri. In schizophrenics, corpus callosum area reduction was not accounted for by brain area shrinkage alone. Differences between the two groups were accounted for by comparisons between males only. These findings support the hypothesis and the possibility that localized abnormalities of bilaterally connected brain regions might have secondary effects on their homotopically distributed fibres within the corpus callosum.
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PMID:A computerized magnetic resonance imaging study of corpus callosum morphology in schizophrenia. 847 14

Serial assessments of regional cerebral blood flow were performed using 123I-IMP SPECT in two schizophrenic and three schizophreniform patients with persistent auditory hallucination. The initial SPECT study in the period with prominent auditory hallucination revealed an increased accumulation of 123I-IMP in the left superior temporal area which corresponded to the auditory association cortex. In the follow-up SPECT study performed after clinical improvement, the distribution of 123I-IMP had normalized. One of the case with schizophrenia showed a similar increased uptake of 123I-IMP in the left superior temporal area in the third SPECT scan performed when a psychotic relapse with auditory hallucination occurred. MRI scans in two of the five patients demonstrated reduced volume of the temporal lobes. These findings suggest that the auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia may be involved in functional hyperactivity in the left superior temporal cortex which might be based partly on structural abnormalities in the temporal lobes.
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PMID:Left superior temporal blood flow increases in schizophrenic and schizophreniform patients with auditory hallucination: a longitudinal case study using 123I-IMP SPECT. 849 93

Several psychopathological and morphological studies support the hypothesis of temporal-limbic involvement in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. In the present study, magnetic resonance imaging was used to evaluate the areas of the temporal lobes and related structures in 18 schizophrenic patients and 18 normal control subjects who were homogeneous for sex and age. The Wechsler Memory Scale was used to assess the memory functions of all subjects. Although the MRI data did not reveal any significant differences between the two groups, the Wechsler Memory Scale indices of memory functions showed significant differences between the schizophrenic patients and the control subjects.
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PMID:Memory functions and temporal-limbic morphology in schizophrenia. 851 Dec 23

This study examined whether the neuropsychological deficits observed in patients with schizophrenia were related to cortical gray matter volume deficits in these patients. All subjects were men and included 34 patients with DSM-III-R Schizophrenia and 47 age-matched healthy controls. Subjects received a battery of 21 tests, assessing four different functional domains: executive functions, short-term memory and production, declarative memory, and motor ability. MRI volumes were corrected for normal variation in head size and age, and neuropsychological test scores were corrected for normal variation in age. The schizophrenic group had significantly smaller cortical gray matter volumes (p < .05) and lower test scores in all functional domain than the control group (p = .0001). Within the schizophrenic group, lower scores in each domain were significantly correlated with smaller total cortical gray matter volumes; however, no predictable relationships were observed between neuropsychological test performance and the volumes of specific cortical regions.
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PMID:Cognitive and motor impairments are related to gray matter volume deficits in schizophrenia. 864 69

The distinction between winter-born (WBS) and non-winter born (NWBS) schizophrenic cases has been proposed as a strategy to identify distinct etiologic subtypes within schizophrenia, the WBS subgroup being a predominantly environmental subtype. The goal of this paper is to empirically test the validity of this strategy by comparing WBS and NWBS groups on a broad array of clinical and biological variables. DSM-III-R schizophrenic, schizoaffective and schizophreniform subjects were comprehensively assessed using (i) the Comprehensive Assessment of Symptoms and History; (ii) a comprehensive neurological exam; (iii) a neuropsychological battery, including IQ and the Continuous Performance Test and (iv) an MRI scanning. The patients were divided into WBS and NWBS, using five alternative sets of definitions of winter birth. These comparisons yielded no differences between the groups on any of the 23 variables. The results suggest that the distinction between winter-born and non-winter-born cases has very limited power to identify distinct schizophrenic subtypes, and that better delineation of the correlates of environmental risk factors in schizophrenia will require a better identification of these factors.
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PMID:No difference found between winter- and non-winter-born schizophrenic cases. 866 3


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