To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: Researchers Zooming In On The Brain In Schizophrenia Patients URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/2C6AA.htm Doctor's Guide June 13, 1997
LONDON -- June 13, 1997 -- In two reports in The Lancet this week, investigators focus on brain activity in schizophrenia in an attempt to identify which areas of the brain are involved in the disease, and in what ways. In the first, Dr Nancy Andreasen and colleagues from the United States investigate metabolic activity in schizophrenia patients in the area of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex. To try to avoid the confounding effects encountered in previous studies, the investigators examined cerebral blood flow with a type of scan positron-emission tomography. Seventeen patients with schizophrenia, who had never had drug treatment, were studied in the early stages of their illness. An initial test indicated that patients differed from normal controls in metabolic brain activity, which suggests an imbalance in certain brain circuits. The researchers argue that this may form "the neural basis of schizophrenia through cognitive impairment of the brain ... leading to symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, and loss of volition." Previous studies of schizophrenia have shown abnormalities in blood flow in different parts of the brain. In the second report, Dr Osama Sabri and colleagues from Germany examined the inter-relations between regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), psychopathology, and effects of drug therapy. Twenty-four never-treated patients with acute schizophrenia were examined with a brain scan and assessed psychopathologically according to a syndrome scale. The investigators found both over-perfused and under-perfused areas in the brains of patients with schizophrenia during the acute illness. The seven positive symptoms on the symptom scale showed different correlations with rCBF: formal thought disorders and grandiosity, for example, correlated with high bifrontal and bitemporal rCBF. The authors conclude that some positive symptoms are related to over-perfusion of blood, others to under-perfusion. This finding, conclude the researchers, "may help to explain observed inconsistencies of perfusion patterns in drug-naive schizophrenics". --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of P\S\L content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of P\S\L. P\S\L shall not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this content or any other content on its sites, newsletters or other publications, nor for any decisions or actions taken in reliance on such content. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This news story was printed from *Doctor's Guide to the Internet* located at http://www.docguide.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to News Story Page This site is maintained by webmaster@pslgroup.com Please contact us with any comments, problems or bugs. All contents Copyright (c) 1998 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved.