Progressive atrophy of the frontal lobes in first-episode schizophrenia: interaction with clinical course and neuroleptic treatment

Reward Processing in Motivational and Affective Disorders

“…Furthermore, patients with schizophrenia exhibit atrophy of frontal and temporal brain regions (Madsen et al, 1999;Velakoulis et al, 2001;van Haren et al, 2008), a pattern which would be expected to be accompanied by shortened time perspective, given the role of these structures in imagining future scenarios (Hassabis et al, 2007;Johnson et al, 2007;. Heerey et al (2011) present evidence to support this view, comparing measures of discounting, cognitive function and "future representation" in 39 patients with schizophrenia and 25 healthy control participants.…”

Antipsychotic medication, mortality and neurodegeneration: The need for more selective use and lower doses

“…In 1998, a prospective 5-year longitudinal cranial computer tomography (CCT) study with initially drug-naïve schizophrenic patients found a progressive frontal atrophy which correlated with the antipsychotic load (Madsen et al, 1998(Madsen et al, , 1999. The estimated risk of atrophy increased by 6.4% for each additional 10g of chlorpromazine equivalent.…”

Longitudinal changes in neuroanatomy and neural activity in early schizophrenia

“…Following this, the present study aimed at determining whether the progressive grey matter loss exhibited by patients with first-episode schizophrenia over the first few years of their illness [3,4] was also associated with a corresponding reduction in EEG power. In doing so, we hoped to gain an insight into the underlying relationship between the structural and functional pathologies that are characteristic of schizophrenia, while minimizing the effect of confounding factors such as chronic exposure to neuroleptic medication [5].…”