L. Marsh et al., Severity of schizophrenia and magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities: A comparison of state and veterans hospital patients, BIOL PSYCHI, 45(1), 1999, pp. 49-61
Background: The relationship between illness severity and neuroanatomical a
bnormalities in schizophrenia remains unclear. The purpose of this study wa
s to test whether the pattern. and extent of brain volume abnormalities dif
fered between two patient groups, distinguished by their overall severity a
nd clinical course of schizophrenia,
Methods: Subjects were 56 severely ill, chronically hospitalized schizophre
nic men from Napa State Hospital (SH-SZ), 44 moderately ill, acutely hospit
alized schizophrenic men from the Pale Alto Veterans Administration Health
Care System (VA-SZ), and 52 healthy male control subjects. Temporolimbic, v
entricular and frontoparietal volumes, quantified from 3-mm coronal spin-ec
ho magnetic resonance images and adjusted for cerebral volume and age, were
compared using analysis of variance.
Results: Compared to control subjects, both SZ groups had smaller (p <.05)
temporal lobe and frontoparietal gray matter volumes and larger ventricles
and temporal sulci. Whereas SH-SZ had more pronounced cerebrospinal fluid a
nd frontoparietal abnormalities relative to VA-SZ; VA-SZ had greater tempor
al lobe gray matter deficits. Neither patient group had hippocampal or cere
bral volume deficits relative to control subjects. There were no difference
s between diagnostic subtypes.
Conclusions: The magnitude of volume abnormalities in schizophrenia varies
with respect to disease severity and to brain region, but disease severity
is not associated with anatomically distinct subgroups. Biol Psychiatry 199
9; 45:49-61 (C) 1999 Society of Biological Psychiatry.