Abstract
Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have identified widespread and progressive grey matter volume (GMV) reductions in schizophrenia, especially in the frontal lobe. In this study, we found a progressive GMV decrease in the rostral medial frontal cortex (rMFC, including the anterior cingulate cortex) in the patient group during a 6-week follow-up of 40 patients with schizophrenia and 31 healthy controls well-matched for age, gender, and education. The higher baseline GMV in the rMFC predicted better improvement in the positive score on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and this might be related to the improved reality-monitoring. Besides, a higher baseline GMV in the posterior rMFC predicted better remission of general symptoms, and a lesser GMV reduction in this region was correlated with better remission of negative symptoms, probably associated with ameliorated self-referential processing and social cognition. Besides, a shorter disease course and higher educational level contributed to better improvement in the general psychopathological PANSS score, and a family history was negatively associated with improvement of the negative and total PANSS scores. These phenomena might be important for understanding the neuropathological mechanisms underlying the symptoms of schizophrenia and for making clinical decisions.
Highlights
Schizophrenia is one of the most serious and disabling psychiatric disorders with *1% prevalence across the world [1]
We found a progressive grey matter volume (GMV) decrease in the rostral medial frontal cortex in the patient group during a 6-week follow-up of 40 patients with schizophrenia and 31 healthy controls well-matched for age, gender, and education
There were no significant differences in gender distribution, age, education, and total GMV between patients with schizophrenia and Healthy controls (HCs) (Table 1)
Summary
Schizophrenia is one of the most serious and disabling psychiatric disorders with *1% prevalence across the world [1]. It is a complex syndrome with a heterogeneous combination of symptoms, which can be divided into positive, negative, and cognitive categories [2]. The volumetric deficits are subtle and mainly located in parts of the frontal, parietal, and middle temporal cortices [5, 6], and in chronic patients, evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis has demonstrated that brain tissue decreases are continuously progressive; the annualized percentage GMV reduction in chronic schizophrenia is *0.5% compared to healthy individuals, the frontal and temporal areas being the most affected regions [7, 8].
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