Brain volumes in psychotic youth with schizophrenia and mood disorders.
BACKGROUND
We sought to test the hypothesis that deficits in grey matter volume are characteristic of psychotic youth with early-onset schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (EOSS) but not of psychotic youth with early-onset mood disorders (EOMD).


METHODS
We used magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain volume in 24 psychotic youth (13 male, 11 female) with EOSS (n = 12) or EOMD (n = 12) and 17 healthy controls (10 male, 7 female). We measured the volume of grey and white matter using an automated segmentation program.


RESULTS
After adjustment for age and intracranial volume, whole brain volume was lower in the EOSS patients than in the healthy controls (p = 0.001) and EOMD patients (p = 0.002). The EOSS patients had a deficit in grey matter volume (p = 0.005), especially in the frontal (p = 0.003) and parietal (p = 0.006) lobes, with no significant differences in white matter volume.


CONCLUSIONS
The main limitations of our study were its small sample size and the inclusion of patients with depression and mania in the affective group.


CONCLUSIONS
Adolescents with EOSS have grey matter deficits compared with healthy controls and psychotic adolescents with EOMD. Our results suggest that grey matter deficits are not generally associated with psychosis but may be specifically associated with schizophrenia. Larger studies with consistent methods are needed to reconcile the contradictory findings among imaging studies involving psychotic youth.
El-Sayed
Mohamed
M
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7160, USA.
Steen
R Grant
RG
Poe
Michele D
MD
Bethea
T Carter
TC
Gerig
Guido
G
Lieberman
Jeffrey
J
Sikich
Linmarie
L
D000293:Adolescent; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000473:pathology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000473:pathology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult