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Increased temporal lobe glucose use in chronic schizophrenic patients
L E DeLisi1, M S Buchsbaum, H H Holcomb
1Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Irvine 92717.
Biological Psychiatry
|April 1, 1989
Summary
Schizophrenia patients show altered brain metabolism in the temporal lobe, with greater activity on the left compared to the right. This metabolic asymmetry correlates with the severity of schizophrenia symptoms.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Schizophrenia is a complex psychiatric disorder with diverse neurobiological underpinnings.
- Alterations in brain glucose metabolism are implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate temporal lobe glucose metabolic rate in patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls.
- To explore the relationship between temporal lobe metabolic asymmetry and psychopathology severity.
Main Methods:
- Positron emission tomography (PET) with 18F-deoxyglucose was used to measure glucose metabolism.
- 21 off-medication patients with schizophrenia and 19 healthy controls were included.
Main Results:
- Patients with schizophrenia exhibited significantly greater metabolic activity in the left anterior temporal lobe compared to the right.
- The degree of this left-greater-than-right metabolic lateralization was positively correlated with the severity of psychopathology.
Conclusions:
- Asymmetrical temporal lobe glucose metabolism is a feature of schizophrenia.
- Metabolic lateralization in the temporal lobe may serve as a neurobiological marker for symptom severity in schizophrenia.