A study of cranial computertomograms in very early and early onset schizophrenia

The cranial computer-assisted tomograms of 19 patients suffering from schiz ophrenic psychoses with onset by age of 14 were examined. The emphasis was on the extent of the inner liquor spaces. Compared to healthy controls, at the beginning of illness a significant enlargement was revealed only in the patient group with very early onset schizophrenia (VEOS, onset prior to th e age of 12), whereas children with early onset (EOS, 12 to 14 years of age ) showed no significant brain pathology. As a second result, an increase in the extent of the inner liquor spaces seems to correlate with the duration of illness. It is therefore concluded that psychoses interfere with neurod evelopmental processes and cause more severe brain pathology in very young children, already detectable at the onset of the illness. EOS, on the other hand, induces progressive morphological abnormalities over the course of t he illness.