ABSTRACT
Eleven drug-free patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia who were in a period of psychotic exacerbation were treated with antipsychotics for 4 weeks. To evaluate treatment-associated changes in the basal ganglia and in psychotic symptomatology, the patients were studied with magnetic resonance imaging and with the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms. Serial assessments of striatal volumes and psychotic symptoms were performed at baseline and at 4 weeks of treatment; dual assessments of striatal volumes were also performed in 11 untreated normal controls. Patients and controls did not differ in striatal volumes at baseline, but the patients demonstrated a significant posttreatment increase in striatal tissues (caudate-putamen). An increase in left striatum was not associated with drug treatment itself, but with a reduction of positive symptoms.
Subject(s)
Affect , Corpus Striatum/abnormalities , Corpus Striatum/physiopathology , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Adult , Caudate Nucleus/abnormalities , Caudate Nucleus/physiopathology , Functional Laterality/physiology , Humans , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Psychotic Disorders/diagnosis , Psychotic Disorders/physiopathology , Putamen/abnormalities , Putamen/physiopathology , Schizophrenia/diagnosisABSTRACT
Thalamic volumes and psychotic symptoms were assessed during psychotic exacerbation and during antipsychotic drug treatment. Reduction of psychotic symptoms (SAPS) during four weeks of treatment was highly correlated with volumetric expansion as measured by magnetic resonance imaging in both left and right thalamus [r(s)=0.75 and r(s)=0.82, respectively (both P<0.04)].
