Regional gray matter volume deficits in adolescents with first-episode psychosis.
OBJECTIVE
The current study combined baseline voxel-based morphometry and 1-year clinical follow-up assessments to examine whether and where regional gray matter (GM) volumes differed between a control group and diagnostic subgroups of early-onset first-episode psychosis (FEP).


METHODS
Magnetic resonance imaging brain scans were obtained from 70 patients with early-onset FEP, and 51 non-FEP controls. Early-onset FEP was defined as age younger than 18 years and a duration of positive symptoms of less than 6 months. The age range of the sample was 7 to 18 years. After a 1-year follow-up, patients were stratified into three subgroups: schizophrenia (n = 25), bipolar I disorder (n = 20), and other psychoses (n = 25). Regional GM volumes of each patient subgroup were compared with those of the control group.


RESULTS
A follow-up diagnosis of schizophrenia was associated with GM volume deficits in the left medial and left middle frontal gyrus; bipolar I disorder was related to a GM volume deficit in the left medial frontal gyrus; and not having a follow-up diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder was associated with smaller bilateral GM volumes in the insula and right middle occipital gyrus.


CONCLUSIONS
Left medial frontal GM volume deficits were common in the groups with schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder, which may point to shared underlying pathological findings.
Janssen
Joost
J
Laboratorio de Imagen Medica, Experimental Medicine and Surgery, Hospital Universitario Gregorio Marañon, Madrid, Spain. jjanssen@mce.hggm.es
Reig
Santiago
S
Parellada
Mara
M
Moreno
Dolores
D
Graell
Montserrat
M
Fraguas
David
D
Zabala
Arantzazu
A
Garcia Vazquez
Veronica
V
Desco
Manuel
M
Arango
Celso
C
D000293:Adolescent; D001284:Atrophy; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D012016:Reference Values; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology