title: "Hyperfrontality" as seen on FDG PET in unmedicated schizophrenia patients with positive symptoms.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Decreased frontal activity has been reported widely in unmedicated schizophrenic patients with predominantly negative symptoms. Not many studies have assessed the frontal lobe status in unmedicated patients with positive symptoms.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-one patients with schizophrenia (all unmedicated, 38 never medicated) and 12 healthy age-matched controls were evaluated with FDG PET CT. The patients met ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia, and all reported psychotic, "positive" symptoms when tested.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Schizophrenic patients with positive symptoms had a hypermetabolic frontal metabolic pattern on quantification by region to occipital ratio comparison. Associated statistically significant differences were also found when comparing ratios of occipital to thalamic, striatal and temporal cortex in schizophrenic patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The finding of a hyperfrontality in unmedicated and never medicated psychotic schizophrenic patients is observed when there is a predominance of positive symptoms. There could be a possible disruption of cortico-striato-thalamic feedback loops causing hyperfrontality as seen in experimentally induced models of psychosis .
authors: From the *Nuclear Medicine Department and Psychiatry Department, †KMCH, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India; ‡Vazhikatti Mental Health Centre and Research Institute, Coimbatore, TN, India; and §PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Coimbatore, TN, India.
authors: Ajit S
authors: AS
authors: Shinto
authors: K K
authors: KK
authors: Kamaleshwaran
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Srinivasan
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Paranthaman
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Selvaraj
authors: M B
authors: MB
authors: Pranesh
authors: G N
authors: GN
authors: Lakshminarayanan
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Prakash
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18