THE NEURODEVELOPMENTAL THEORY OF SCHIZOPHRENIA - EVIDENCE CONCERNING STRUCTURE AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGY

Severe schizophrenics as a group show subtle abnormalities of cerebral structure, Cerebral ventricular enlargement is the best replicated fi nding, and this tends to be associated with impairment of neuropsychol ogical performance. The idea that these abnormalities have a neurodeve lopmental origin gains indirect support from the, admittedly less cons istent, evidence of abnormalities of cerebral asymmetry and of neurona l migration in adult schizophrenics, as well as from the better establ ished behavioural, psychomotor, and cognitive impairments reported in preschizophrenic children, However, the relationship between childhood and adult neuropsychological and brain structural findings has not be en proven, and we do not know whether only some schizophrenia has a de velopmental origin, or whether patients differ only in the degree of d evelopmental impairment that they show.