Left nucleus accumbens atrophy in deficit schizophrenia: a preliminary study

Abstract A question that remains to be answered is whether schizophrenia can be characterized by a single etiopathophysiology or whether separate sub-syndromes should be differentiated to define specific mechanisms for each sub-type. Individuals affected by the deficit subtype of schizophrenia (DSZ)...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging 2016-08, Vol.254, p.48-55
Main Authors: De Rossi, Pietro, Dacquino, Claudia, Piras, Fabrizio, Caltagirone, Carlo, Spalletta, Gianfranco
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Amotivation
Atrophy - pathology
Case-Control Studies
Cross-Sectional Studies
Deficit syndrome
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Middle Aged
Neurobiological correlates
Nucleus Accumbens - diagnostic imaging
Nucleus Accumbens - pathology
Psychiatry
Radiology
Reward system
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - diagnostic imaging
Schizophrenia - pathology
Schizophrenia - physiopathology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract A question that remains to be answered is whether schizophrenia can be characterized by a single etiopathophysiology or whether separate sub-syndromes should be differentiated to define specific mechanisms for each sub-type. Individuals affected by the deficit subtype of schizophrenia (DSZ) display avolitional/amotivational features that respond poorly to conventional treatments. Characterizing DSZ from a neuroanatomical point of view may help clarify this issue and develop new treatment strategies. To determine if DSZ is associated with structural alterations in specific deep grey matter structures linked to its key clinical features, 22 DSZ patients, 22 non-deficit schizophrenia (NDSZ) patients and 22 healthy controls (HC) were recruited for a case-control cross-sectional study. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging was performed in all subjects and volumes of grey matter structures were measured using FreeSurfer. DSZ patients displayed smaller left accumbens volumes compared to both NDSZ patients and HC. Moreover, age and duration of illness were significantly associated with lower volume of the left accumbens in DSZ but not in NDSZ. Findings indicate that DSZ is associated with lower volume of the nucleus accumbens in the dominant hemisphere. This is consistent with the psychopathological features and functional impairments present in DSZ and thus indicates a potential mechanism.
ISSN:0925-4927
1872-7506
DOI:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2016.06.004