The Maudsley Early Onset Schizophrenia Study: the effect of age of onset and illness duration on fronto-parietal gray matter.
OBJECTIVE
In Early Onset Schizophrenia (EOS; onset before the 18th birthday) late brain maturational changes may interact with disease mechanisms leading to a wave of back to front structural changes during adolescence. To further explore this effect we examined the relationship between age of onset and duration of illness on brain morphology in adolescents with EOS.


METHODS
Structural brain magnetic resonance imaging scans were obtained from 40 adolescents with EOS. We used Voxel Based Morphometry and multiple regressions analyses, implemented in SPM, to examine the relationship between gray matter volume with age of onset and illness duration.


RESULTS
Age of onset showed a positive correlation with regional gray matter volume in the right superior parietal lobule (Brodmann Area 7). Duration of illness was inversely related to regional gray matter volume in the left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 11/47).


CONCLUSIONS
Parietal gray matter loss may contribute to the onset of schizophrenia while orbitofrontal gray matter loss is associated with illness duration.
Child and Adolescent Services, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, Denmark Hill, London, UK.
L
L
Burke
C
C
Androutsos
J
J
Jogia
P
P
Byrne
S
S
Frangou
D000293:Adolescent; D017668:Age of Onset; D001284:Atrophy; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000473:pathology*; D012984:Software; D013223:Statistics as Topic