title: Volume changes in gray matter in first-episode neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients treated with risperidone.
abstract: Structural neuroimaging techniques have consistently shown that treatment of schizophrenic patients with conventional antipsychotics causes an increase in basal ganglia volume. However, findings in schizophrenic patients treated with the newer atypical antipsychotic drugs are less consistently reported. To explore this issue, the authors used a whole-brain, unbiased, and automated technique for comparing brain structural features across scans in schizophrenic patients before and after a treatment with the atypical antipsychotic risperidone. T1-weighted images from 11 first-episode neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients were processed and analyzed for regions of interest (basal ganglia) by using optimized voxel-based morphometry. Scans were repeated after 3 months of continuous treatment with risperidone. Region of interest-based voxel-based morphometry analyses revealed increases in gray matter volume for the right and left caudate nuclei and for the left accumbens after the treatment with risperidone. Hence, in our sample of schizophrenic patients, treatment with risperidone was associated, in contrast to the findings for other atypical antipsychotics, with an increase in basal ganglia volume. Such discrepancy could be related to the pharmacodynamics of risperidone (the atypical antipsychotic showing the higher affinity for D2 receptors) and the rather high mean doses used in our study (ie, 6.05 mg/d).
authors.affiliation: Institut Clínic de Psiquiatria i Psicologia, Corporació Sanitària Clínic, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. tricosmos1@yahoo.es
authors.forename: Guillem
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Massana
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Salgado-Pineda
authors.forename: Carme
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Junqué
authors.forename: Mercè
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.forename: Immaculada
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Baeza
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pons
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Massana
authors.forename: Víctor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blanch
authors.forename: Astrid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Morer
authors.forename: José María
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Mercader
authors.forename: Miquel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bernardo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D018967:Risperidone / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D018967:Risperidone