Thalamic and prefrontal FDG uptake in never medicated patients with schizophrenia.
OBJECTIVE
Because neuroleptic treatment may cause long-lasting changes in brain structure and function, a group of patients with schizophrenia who had never been medicated was recruited to examine regional glucose metabolic rates in the frontal-striato-thalamic circuit.


METHODS
Twelve never medicated patients with schizophrenia (seven men, five women; mean age=29 years) and 13 normal volunteers (eight men and five women; mean age=28.5 years) underwent (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography, and coregistered anatomical magnetic resonance imaging scans were also obtained. During FDG uptake, subjects performed a spatial attention task previously shown to activate the pulvinar region of the thalamus.


RESULTS
Diminished regional glucose metabolism was found in the medial dorsal nucleus, posterior thalamus, and prefrontal cortex of patients with schizophrenia relative to normal volunteers, extending earlier results from studies of medicated and previously medicated patients.


CONCLUSIONS
The finding of lower relative metabolic rates in the frontothalamic circuits of patients with schizophrenia is consistent with extended circuit deficits involving interactions of frontal executive areas with thalamic sensory and association processes.
Lehrer
Douglas S
DS
Wright State University Department of Psychiatry, c/o The Wallace-Kettering Neuroscience Institute, 3533 Southern Blvd., Suite 5200, Kettering, OH 45429, USA. Doug.Lehrer@kmcnetwork.org
Christian
Bradley T
BT
Mantil
Joseph
J
Murray
Aaron C
AC
Buchsbaum
Bradley R
BR
Oakes
Terrence R
TR
Byne
William
W
Kemether
Eileen M
EM
Buchsbaum
Monte S
MS
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000378:metabolism; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000378:metabolism*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D020649:Pulvinar / Q000378:metabolism; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013788:Thalamus / Q000378:metabolism*
D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005947:Glucose