[Neurodevelopmental schizophrenia: the concept of developmental origins of certain forms of schizophrenia]

This article presents the concept of neurodevelopmental schizophrenia and reviews the studies that contributed to its formulation. According to this concept some forms of schizophrenia (early onset, with predominating negative symptoms) are conditioned by distorted CNS development, probably in prenatal period. Such pathogenesis of certain forms of the disease is suggested by the following results of the studies on the CNS structure and function in schizophrenia: 1) structural abnormalities on in vivo brain imaging and postmortem studies 2) cytoarchitectural distortions in some brain regions, suggestive of disruption of cell migration during the CNS developmental processes 3) co-occurrence of the CNS congenital anomalies, minor physical anomalies and schizophrenia 4) neurological defects and psychosocial childhood dysfunction in individuals with adult onset schizophrenia. Genetical conditions, viral infections in prenatal period, obstetric complications or combination of the mentioned factors are considered as the factors disturbing the CNS developmental processes.