Childhood neglect predicts disorganization in schizophrenia through grey matter decrease in dorsolateral prefrontal...

Psychosocial trauma during childhood is associated with schizophrenia vulnerability. The pattern of grey matter decrease is similar to brain alterations seen in schizophrenia. Our objective was to explore the links between childhood trauma, brain morphology and schizophrenia symptoms.

Twenty-one patients with schizophrenia stabilized with atypical antipsychotic monotherapy and 30 healthy control subjects completed the study. Anatomical MRI images were analysed using optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Childhood trauma was assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, and symptoms were rated on the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) (disorganization, positive and negative symptoms). In the schizophrenia group, we used structural equation modelling in a path analysis.

Total grey matter volume was negatively associated with emotional neglect (EN) in patients with schizophrenia. Whole-brain VBM analyses of grey matter in the schizophrenia group revealed a specific inversed association between EN and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Path analyses identified a well-fitted model in which EN predicted grey matter density in DLPFC, which in turn predicted the disorganization score.

Our findings suggest that EN during childhood could have an impact on psychopathology in schizophrenia, which would be mediated by developmental effects on brain regions such as the DLPFC.