Structural neuroimaging in adolescents with a first psychotic episode

The objective of the present study is to replicate findings in first-episode psychosis reporting a smaller volume in brain structures in a population with adolescent onset.

Magnetic resonance imaging studies were performed on 23 psychotic adolescents (12-18 years old, 17 males, 6 females) consecutively admitted to an adolescent inpatient unit and on 37 normal controls (13-18 years, 23 males, 14 females) matched for age, sex, and years of education. Diagnosis was made at baseline on the basis of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime version and confirmed after 12 months of follow-up. Total brain volume and gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volumes of the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes were measured bilaterally using a segmentation method based on the Talairach grid system.

Male patients showed significantly larger volumes than did male controls in overall CSF and left frontal and right parietal sulci CSF. Male patients also showed significantly lower volumes of gray matter in the right and left frontal lobes. No significant volumetric differences were found in females. There were no differences between individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia at follow-up and the rest of the patients.

This study suggests that larger CSF and lower gray matter volumes in the frontal lobes may be a nonspecific vulnerability marker for psychosis in male adolescents.