Schizophrenia Bulletin Advance Access published online on January 16, 2008
Schizophrenia Bulletin, doi:10.1093/schbul/sbm149
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Progressive Changes in the Development Toward Schizophrenia: Studies in Subjects at Increased Symptomatic Risk
2 Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia
3 ORYGEN Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed; Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, c/o National Neuroscience Facility, 161 Barry Street, Carlton South, VIC 3053, Australia; tel: 61-3-8344-1877, fax: 61-3-9348-0469, e-mail: sjwood{at}unimelb.edu.au.
Although the underlying neurobiology of emerging psychotic disorders is not well understood, there is a growing conviction that the study of patients at clinical high risk for the illness will provide important insights. Further, a better understanding of the transition period may help the development of novel therapies. In this review, we summarize the extant neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies of people at clinical high risk for psychosis. By and large, there are few definitive markers that distinguish those who go on to develop the illness from those who do not. The 2 most consistently abnormal brain regions in schizophrenia research, the hippocampi and the lateral ventricles, are not significantly different from healthy controls prior to psychosis onset. However, frontal lobe measures (eg, cortical thickness in the anterior cingulate) do show promise, as do cognitive measures sensitive to prefrontal cortex dysfunction. Further, longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging findings in individuals at ultrahigh risk for developing a psychotic illness show that there are excessive neuroanatomical changes in those who convert to psychosis. These aberrant changes are observed most prominently in medial temporal and prefrontal cortical regions. While the pathological processes underlying such changes remain unclear, speculatively they may reflect anomalies in genetic and/or other endogenous mechanisms responsible for brain maturation, the adverse effects of intense or prolonged stress, or other environmental factors. Active changes during transition to illness may present the potential to intervene and ameliorate these changes with potential benefit clinically.
Keywords: neuropsychology / neuroimaging / neurodevelopment
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  P. Allen, M. L. Seal, I. Valli, P. Fusar-Poli, C. Perlini, F. Day, S. J. Wood, S. C. Williams, and P. K. McGuire Altered Prefrontal and Hippocampal Function During Verbal Encoding and Recognition in People With Prodromal Symptoms of Psychosis Schizophr Bull, November 23, 2009; (2009) sbp113v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
P. Fusar-Poli, M.R. Broome, P. Matthiasson, J.B. Woolley, A. Mechelli, L.C. Johns, P. Tabraham, E. Bramon, L. Valmaggia, S.C. Williams, et al. Prefrontal Function at Presentation Directly Related to Clinical Outcome in People at Ultrahigh Risk of Psychosis Schizophr Bull, August 7, 2009; (2009) sbp074v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
O. D. Howes and S. Kapur The Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia: Version III--The Final Common Pathway Schizophr Bull, May 1, 2009; 35(3): 549 - 562. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 T. Takahashi, S. J. Wood, A. R. Yung, B. Soulsby, P. D. McGorry, M. Suzuki, Y. Kawasaki, L. J. Phillips, D. Velakoulis, and C. Pantelis Progressive Gray Matter Reduction of the Superior Temporal Gyrus During Transition to Psychosis Arch Gen Psychiatry, April 1, 2009; 66(4): 366 - 376. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|