1. Comorbid substance abuse and brain morphology in recent-onset psychosis
- Author
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Peter Falkai, Bernd Behrendt, Roberto D'Amelio, Thomas Wobrock, and Helmut Sittinger
- Subjects
Male ,cannabis ,Time Factors ,Comorbidity ,Hippocampus ,Superior temporal gyrus ,0302 clinical medicine ,Risk Factors ,substance abuse ,magnetic resonance imaging ,Pharmacology (medical) ,Prospective Studies ,Depression (differential diagnoses) ,Brain ,General Medicine ,Amygdala ,Temporal Lobe ,Substance abuse ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Schizophrenia ,Anxiety ,Female ,medicine.symptom ,Psychology ,Clinical psychology ,Adult ,Psychosis ,medicine.medical_specialty ,brain morphology ,Adolescent ,Substance-Related Disorders ,recent-onset schizophrenia ,Schizoaffective disorder ,Gyrus Cinguli ,behavioral disciplines and activities ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,mental disorders ,medicine ,Humans ,first-episode psychosis ,Psychiatry ,Biological Psychiatry ,Psychiatric Status Rating Scales ,Original Paper ,medicine.disease ,030227 psychiatry ,Psychotic Disorders ,Socioeconomic Factors ,Medicine & Public Health ,Neurosciences ,Neurology ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
The aim of the presented study was to compare schizophrenia and schizoaffective patients early in the course of the disease with and without comorbid substance abuse disorder (SUD vs. NSUD) with regard to brain morphology. In a prospective design 41 patients (20 SUD vs. 21 NSUD) diagnosed as recent-onset schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder consecutively admitted to hospital received standardized psychopathological evaluation (BPRS, SANS, MADRS, CGI, GAF) and MRI scanning with volumetric measurement of superior temporal gyrus (STG), amygdala-hippocampal complex, and cingulum. Patients with SUD (primarily cannabis) were significantly younger, predominantly male and had a lower socioeconomic status. Despite less attentional impairment (SANS subscore) and elevated anxiety/depression (BPRS subscore) in patients with SUD compared to NSUD, no other psychopathological differences could be detected. There were no differences in the assessed temporolimbic brain morphology between the two subgroups. In conclusion, in this study substance abuse in recent-onset psychosis had no effect on brain morphology and the earlier onset of psychosis in patients with comorbid SUD could not be explained by supposed accentuated brain abnormalities in temporolimbic regions. peerReviewed
- Published
- 2009
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