title: Defining the course of brain structural change and plasticity in schizophrenia.
abstract: Recent evidence from controlled CT and MRI longitudinal studies suggests that some cerebral ventricular enlargement and hemispheric volumetric reductions (e.g. cerebral atrophy) may have a progressive component in patients with schizophrenia. These studies vary in cohort composition, stage of illness examined, duration of follow-up interval, imaging techniques used, and specific brain regions with findings. They also conflict with earlier evidence suggesting that schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder with brain pathological deviance occurring prior to the illness onset. The newer brain imaging reports may be detecting subtle brain plasticity that results from a continuing cortical disruptive process, may be epi-phenomena caused by scanning and image analysis artifacts or may possibly reflect systemic physiological fluctuations. Future longitudinal studies of subjects at all stages of illness using a variety of new technologies are needed to clarify these findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, SUNY-Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA. ldelisi@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: DeLisi
mesh_terms: D001284:Atrophy; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D002552:Cerebral Ventricles / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed