The volumetric differences of the fronto-temporal region in young offspring of schizophrenic patients

• Published in: European child & adolescent psychiatry 2010-02, Vol.19 (2), p.151-157
• Main Authors: Şişmanlar, Şahika Gülen, Anık, Yonca, Coşkun, Ayşen, Ağaoğlu, Belma, Karakaya, Işık, Yavuz, Cavit Işık
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Analysis of Variance; Behavior disorders; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain Mapping; Child; Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; Child of Impaired Parents; Children; Children & youth; Families & family life; Female; Frontal Lobe - anatomy & histology; High risk; Hippocampus - anatomy & histology; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Interviews; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental disorders; Organ Size; Original Contribution; Parents; Parents & parenting; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Psychosis; Schizophrenia; Temporal Lobe - anatomy & histology; Temporal lobes
• ISSN: 1018-8827; 1435-165X
• DOI: 10.1007/s00787-009-0052-5

The aim of this study is to examine the volumetric differences of the fronto-temporal region in the offspring of schizophrenic patients in comparison to normal. Twenty-six offspring of chronic schizophrenic patients aged between 8 and 15 years and 23 control children were matched with respect to cranial MRI. Chronic schizophrenic patients were reevaluated with SCID-I to confirm their diagnosis. Parents of children in the control group completed SCL-90-R and were evaluated by clinical interview to exclude any psychotic disorder. The diagnoses of psychiatric disorders in all of the children were established by DSM-IV-based clinical interviews with children and parents. They underwent IQ evaluation by WISC-R and evaluated with cranial MRI. Hippocampus, thalamus, amygdala, corpus callosum, frontal, and temporal lobe volumes were measured and compared by using MANCOVA. After covarying whole brain volume, age and gender, statistically significant decrease in the measurements of corpus callosum and hippocampi, and a non-significant trend toward smaller temporal lobes were observed in the high-risk children. The structure of hippocampal formation and corpus callosum were impaired in the children of the schizophrenic patients which suggests a neurodevelopmental abnormality in subjects with genetic high risk for schizophrenia.