Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in Schizophrenia

The aim of this study is to investigate the retinovascular structure of schizophrenia patients using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).

47 eyes of schizophrenia patients were compared with 50 eyes of demographically matched healthy controls in terms of OCTA measurements. Schizophrenia patients were evaluated in two groups as short-term (≤ 5years) and long-term (> 5years) according to the time elapsed after the diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia patients showed overall thinning of retinal nerve fiber layer and macula, and lower vessel density (VD) compared to controls. The results were significant for thickness measurements of general macula and for VD in specific areas (P < 0.05); however, they were not significant for the RNFL measurements except the mean circumpapillary RNFL, which was noted to approach significance (P = 0.055). Long-term patients showed significantly lower VD in the whole and perifoveal region of superficial capillary plexus, the whole, perifoveal and foveal region of deep capillary plexus, and the whole area and the disc of radial peripapillary capillaries compared to short-term patients (P = 0.014, P = 0.009, P = 0.011, P = 0.010, P = 0.011, P = 0.035, P = 0.030).

These findings suggest that schizophrenia may be a neurodegenerative disease with progressive microvascular involvement over the years, and that OCTA has the potential to be a useful tool in detecting retinovascular changes in patients with schizophrenia.