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Title: Abnormal Surge in Brain Development Occurs in Teens, Young Adults With Schizophrenia
URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/225596.htm
Doctor's Guide
July 9, 2008

BETHESDA, Md -- July 9, 2008 -- Schizophrenia may occur, in part, because brain development goes awry during adolescence and young adulthood, when the brain is eliminating some connections between cells as a normal part of maturation, according to a study in the online July 8 issue of Molecular Psychiatry.

After comparing a group of adolescents and young adults who had recent-onset schizophrenia with a group of healthy peers, researchers found that this loss of tissue began around the same time and in the same brain areas in both groups. However, the rate of loss was more pronounced and covered a greater area of the brain's surface in the youth with schizophrenia.

The new findings add to evidence that changes in brain development which lead to schizophrenia aren't limited to the prenatal stage and early childhood, but also occur during the late-teen and young-adult years -- the age range when symptoms usually begin to appear.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and the University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 16 adolescents and young adults, aged 17 to 30 years, with recent-onset schizophrenia, and in 14 healthy people in the same age range. MRIs were repeated 2 years later to look for any changes.

The scans showed the expected loss of brain volume in both the healthy group and the group with schizophrenia. However, compared with the healthy youth, those with schizophrenia had more tissue loss on the surface of the prefrontal lobe and the parietal lobes.

The timing of the excessive tissue loss in this late-developing brain area corresponds with the age that schizophrenia symptoms usually begin, the researchers note.

After 2 years, MRI showed continued loss of tissue in both prefrontal and parietal lobes in the group with schizophrenia. Overall, the group with schizophrenia group had 1.6 times more evidence of tissue loss in the surfaces of these lobes, compared with the healthy group.


SOURCE: National Institute of Mental Health

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