title: Multicenter study of brain volume abnormalities in children and adolescent-onset psychosis.
abstract: The goal of the study is to determine the extent of structural brain abnormalities in a multicenter sample of children and adolescents with a recent-onset first episode of psychosis (FEP), compared with a sample of healthy controls. Total brain and lobar volumes and those of gray matter (GM), white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were measured in 92 patients with a FEP and in 94 controls, matched for age, gender, and years of education. Male patients (n = 64) showed several significant differences when compared with controls (n = 61). GM volume in male patients was reduced in the whole brain and in frontal and parietal lobes compared with controls. Total CSF volume and frontal, temporal, and right parietal CSF volumes were also increased in male patients. Within patients, those with a further diagnosis of "schizophrenia" or "other psychosis" showed a pattern similar to the group of all patients relative to controls. However, bipolar patients showed fewer differences relative to controls. In female patients, only the schizophrenia group showed differences relative to controls, in frontal CSF. GM deficit in male patients with a first episode correlated with negative symptoms. Our study suggests that at least part of the GM deficit in children and adolescent-onset schizophrenia and in other psychosis occurs before onset of the first positive symptoms and that, contrary to what has been shown in children-onset schizophrenia, frontal GM deficits are probably present from the first appearance of positive symptoms in children and adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Maranon, Centro de Investigacio´n Biomedica enRedde Salud Mental, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Santiago
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reig
authors.forename: Mara
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Parellada
authors.forename: Josefina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Castro-Fornieles
authors.forename: Joost
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Janssen
authors.forename: Dolores
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.forename: Inmaculada
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Baeza
authors.forename: Nuria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bargalló
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: González-Pinto
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Graell
authors.forename: Felipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ortuño
authors.forename: Soraya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Otero
authors.forename: Celso
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Arango
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Desco
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D012561:Schizophrenia, Childhood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*