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MRI shows faster age-related cortical thinning among never-medicated patients with schizophrenia

Never-medicated patients with schizophrenia had faster rates of prefrontal and temporal cortical thinning and striatal hypertrophy than healthy patients, according to study findings in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

“Recently, 17 Chinese medication-naive chronically ill individuals were found to have less gray matter volume and cortical thickness in the temporal lobe than healthy subjects. However, in that study, the potential relationship between morphometric abnormalities and age or illness duration was not reported,” study researcher Wenjing Zhang, MS, of the Huaxi MR Research Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, and colleagues wrote. “In a similar sample from India, [researchers] found that duration of untreated illness was not related to the size of lentiform nuclei or to ventricle-hemisphere ratio abnormalities, but relations to regional neocortical volumes and thickness were not examined.”

Researchers conducted MRI scans to investigate associations between age and differences in brain morphometry between patients with schizophrenia and untreated chronic illness (n = 25) and healthy patients (n = 33). Study participants were of Han ancestry and living in west China.

Patients with schizophrenia had less cortical thickness in the bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortices, left superior temporal gyrus and right pars triangularis and greater cortical thickness in the left superior parietal lobe compared with healthy patients.

The correlation of age to cortical thickness indicated faster age-related cortical thinning in the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex, left superior temoral gyrus and right pars triangularis and slower thinning in the left superior parietal lobe among patients with schizophrenia vs. healthy patients.

Patients with schizophrenia had greater grey matter volume in the putamen and smaller grey matter volume in the right middle temporal gyrus and right lingual gyrus than healthy patients; however, age-related effects did not differ between patients.

“We found a faster rate of prefrontal and temporal cortical thinning and striatal hypertrophy, which may represent core components of the pathophysiological process of schizophrenia over the course of illness, effects that could not be attributed to antipsychotic treatment,” Zhang and colleagues wrote. “These findings may provide important insights into the course and regional specificity of progressive brain changes associated with schizophrenia in the decades after illness onset.” – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosure: Zhang reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.