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Birth weight and CT scan findings in chronic schizophrenic patients
S Mukherjee1, D B Schnur, R Reddy
1Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta 30912-3800.
Insights
This study found no significant link between birth weight and brain structure in chronic schizophrenic patients. These findings contrast with previous research on high-risk individuals, suggesting birth weight may not predict brain abnormalities in schizophrenia.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Psychiatry
- Human Anatomy
Background:
- Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder with potential neurodevelopmental origins.
- Previous studies, including the Danish High-Risk Study, suggested a correlation between lower birth weight and enlarged ventricles in individuals at risk for schizophrenia.
- The relationship between birth weight and specific brain structural measures in established schizophrenia requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between birth weight and computed tomography (CT) scan measures of brain structure in patients with chronic schizophrenia.
- To determine if birth weight predicts ventricular size and cortical sulcal prominence in this patient group.
Main Methods:
- A cohort of 24 patients diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia was analyzed.
- Computed tomography (CT) scans were used to measure lateral ventricular size, third ventricular size, frontal cortical sulcal prominence, and parieto-occipital cortical sulcal prominence.
- Statistical analyses were performed to examine correlations between birth weight and these neuroimaging measures.
Main Results:
- No statistically significant correlations were found between birth weight and any of the CT scan measures of brain structure (lateral ventricular size, third ventricular size, frontal or parieto-occipital cortical sulcal prominence).
- These results did not support the hypothesis of an inverse relationship between birth weight and ventricular size in chronic schizophrenic patients.
Conclusions:
- In this cohort of chronic schizophrenic patients, birth weight was not found to be significantly related to measures of ventricular size or cortical sulcal prominence.
- The findings diverge from previous observations in high-risk populations, indicating that the relationship between birth weight and brain morphology in schizophrenia may be complex and context-dependent.
Abstract:
The relations of birth weight to CT scan measures of lateral ventricular size, third ventricular size, frontal cortical sulcal prominence, and parieto-occipital cortical sulcal prominence were examined in 24 chronic schizophrenic patients. In contrast to the inverse correlation between birth weight and ventricular size found among offspring of schizophrenic parents in the Danish High-Risk Study, and the predictions of the subsequent hypothesis, no significant relations between birth weight and CT scan measures were observed in this study.