title: Age and Sex Effects on White Matter Tracts in Psychosis from Adolescence through Middle Adulthood.
abstract: There is controversy regarding specificity of white matter abnormalities in psychosis, their deviation from healthy aging, and the influence of sex on these measures. We used diffusion tensor imaging to characterize putative white matter microstructure in 224 patients with psychosis and healthy volunteers across the age range of 15-64 years. Sixty-five younger (age <30 years; 47M/18F) patients with psychosis (all experiencing a first episode of illness) and 48 older (age ⩾30 years; 30M/18F) patients were age-matched to younger and older healthy volunteer groups (N=63 (40M/23F) and N=48 (29M/19F), respectively). The trajectories of two inter-hemispheric (splenium and genu), two projection (cortico-pontine and anterior thalamic), and five bilateral association (inferior fronto-occipital, inferior longitudinal, superior longitudinal, cingulum, and uncinate) tracts were quantified using tractography to derive measures of fractional anisotropy and mean, axial, and radial diffusivity. Fractional anisotropy was significantly lower in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus and superior longitudinal fasciculus in all patients compared with all healthy volunteers, with comparable effect sizes observed in both the younger and older patients compared with their respective healthy volunteer groups. Moreover, age-associated differences in fractional anisotropy within these tracts were comparable between groups across the age span. In addition, female patients had significantly lower fractional anisotropy across all tracts compared with female controls regardless of age. Our findings demonstrate comparable putative white matter abnormalities in two independent samples of patients with psychosis and argue against their progression in patients. These data further highlight the novel and potentially underappreciated role of sex in understanding white matter dysfunction in the neurobiology of psychosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, St John's University, Jamaica, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3840-9296
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schwehm
authors.affiliation: Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, USA.|Division of Psychiatry Research, Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore-LIJ Health System, Glen Oaks, NY, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, Hofstra North Shore - LIJ School of Medicine, Hempstead, NY, USA.|Department of Molecular Medicine, Hofstra North Shore - LIJ School of Medicine, Hempstead, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Delbert G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.affiliation: Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, USA.|Division of Psychiatry Research, Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore-LIJ Health System, Glen Oaks, NY, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, Hofstra North Shore - LIJ School of Medicine, Hempstead, NY, USA.|Department of Molecular Medicine, Hofstra North Shore - LIJ School of Medicine, Hempstead, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Juan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Gallego
authors.affiliation: Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, USA.|Division of Psychiatry Research, Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore-LIJ Health System, Glen Oaks, NY, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, Hofstra North Shore - LIJ School of Medicine, Hempstead, NY, USA.|Department of Molecular Medicine, Hofstra North Shore - LIJ School of Medicine, Hempstead, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Katherine H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Karlsgodt
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, School of Applied Sciences, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA.
authors.forename: Toshikazu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ikuta
authors.affiliation: Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, USA.|Division of Psychiatry Research, Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore-LIJ Health System, Glen Oaks, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Bart D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.affiliation: Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, USA.|Division of Psychiatry Research, Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore-LIJ Health System, Glen Oaks, NY, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, Hofstra North Shore - LIJ School of Medicine, Hempstead, NY, USA.|Department of Molecular Medicine, Hofstra North Shore - LIJ School of Medicine, Hempstead, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Anil K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Malhotra
authors.affiliation: James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Philip R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Szeszko
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016880:Anisotropy; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D066127:White Matter / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult