Meta-Analysis of Regional Brain Volumes in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Regional structural differences in patients with schizophrenia include bilaterally reduced volume of medial temporal lobe structures. There is a need for greater integration of results from structural MRI studies to avoid redundant research activity.

Schizophrenia Breakdown in the Well-regulated Lifelong Process of Brain Development and Maturation

“…Subtle cortical gray matter volume decrements have also been observed by numerous investigators evaluating the pathophysiology of schizophrenia (for reviews see Lawrie and Abukmeil 1998;Nelson et al 1998;Pearlson and Marsh 1999;McCarley et al 1999;Wright et al 2000). Compared with normal controls, individuals with schizophrenia seem to undergo an exaggerated reduction of gray matter volume in the context of minimal neuronal loss (Selemon and Goldman-Rakic 1999;McGlashan and Hoffman 2000;Woods 1998).…”

“…The gray matter volume deficits observed in schizophrenia appear to be already present at the onset of the disease and to be non-progressive (Gur et al 2000a,b; for review see Pearlson and Marsh 1999). Interestingly however, prospective studies in adults with schizophrenia find CSF volume expansions to be more robust and consistently observed than the accelerated (compared with controls) gray matter reductions Mathalon et al 2001; for review see Wright et al 2000). Given that in adults the volume of the cranial vault is static, this would suggest that a lack of white matter expansion in schizophrenic compared with control subjects could contribute to the consistency and magnitude of CSF volume expansions observed in schizophrenia (Symonds et al 1999;Bartzokis et al 2002b).…”

“…Nevertheless, recent histopathologic and neuroimaging techniques have demonstrated subtle structural changes that provide clues to the disorder's pathophysiology and heterogeneity despite the failure to identify a single pathophysiologic "lesion" (Harrison 1999). Brain imaging studies of adult patients have consistently documented enlarged cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) volumes (sulcal and ventricular), as well as subtle decreases in total brain volume and smaller gray matter volumes in a variety of locations (cortical, medial temporal lobe structures, and thalamus) (for reviews see Lawrie and Abukmeil 1998;Nelson et al 1998;Pearlson and Marsh 1999;McCarley et al 1999;Wright et al 2000).…”

CSF sub-compartments in relation to plasma osmolality in healthy controls and in patients with first episode schizophrenia

“…Beginning with pneumoencephalographic studies back in the early 1900s, and later extending to more sophisticated methods, including computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), structural brain alterations in schizophrenia have been consistently replicated (Wright et al, 2000;Shenton et al, 2001). …”

“…Among these alterations, greater ventricular volume is a robust finding, as evidenced by a 26% increase compared relative to healthy controls in a meta-analysis of regional brain volumes (Wright et al, 2000). With regards to the time course of this alteration, the literature includes studies that detected a difference early in the disease process (DeLisi et al, 1991;Degreef et al, 1992;Nopoulos et al, 1995) and those that failed to do so (DeLisi et al, 1997;Niemann et al, 2000;Puri et al, 2001;Ho et al, 2003;Narr et al, 2006).…”