[Can concepts of neurodevelopment and neuroplasticity explain post-traumatic psychoses?]

Cases of psychoses emerging after a brain injury, included in the diagnostic category "Pychotic disorder due to traumatic brain injury," are not rare in psychiatry. The authors suggest hypotheses aimed at furthering the understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms relating traumatic brain injuries to psychotic disorders. These hypotheses find their starting point in two concepts: neuronal plasticity and the neurodevelopmental theory of schizophrenia. Neuroplasticity is the ability of nerve cells to alter after internal or external changes. The neurodevelopmental theory of schizophrenia is based on the idea that early impairments in cerebral development could later lead to a schizophrenic disorder; this theory has been integrated into the concept of vulnerability to schizophrenia. The authors hypothesize that traumatic brain injuries lead to neuronal reshaping and that this reshaping could cause impairments in subjects vulnerable to schizophrenia.