Search

Objective: The hippocampus has been implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, and hippocampal volume deficits have been a consistently reported abnormality, but the subregional specificity of the deficits remains unknown. The authors explored the nature and developmental trajectory of subregional shape abnormalities of the hippocampus in patients with childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS), their healthy siblings, and healthy volunteers., Method: Two hundred twenty-five anatomic brain magnetic resonance images were obtained from 103 patients with COS, 169 from their 79 healthy siblings, and 255 from 101 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers (age range = 9-29 years). The hippocampus was segmented using FreeSurfer automated image analysis software, and hippocampal shape was evaluated by comparing subjects at more than 6,000 vertices on the left and right hippocampal surfaces. Longitudinal data were examined using mixed model regression analysis., Results: Patients with COS showed significant bilateral inward deformation in the anterior hippocampus. Healthy siblings also showed a trend for anterior inward deformation. However, the trajectory of shape change did not differ significantly between the groups. Inward deformations in the anterior hippocampus were positively related to positive symptom severity, whereas outward surface displacement was positively related to overall functioning., Conclusion: This is the first and largest longitudinal three-way analysis of subregional hippocampal shape abnormalities in patients with COS and their healthy siblings compared with healthy controls. The anterior hippocampal abnormalities in COS suggest the pathophysiologic importance of this subregion in schizophrenia. The trend level and overlapping shape abnormalities in the healthy siblings suggest a more subtle, subregionally specific neuroanatomic endophenotype., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Objective: Childhood- and adolescence-onset schizophrenic patients with obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) constitute a specific subgroup of schizophrenia. We performed magnetic resonance imaging in this group seeking evidence of neurodevelopmental insults., Method: Thirty-two schizophrenic patients were compared with 19 controls. Schizophrenic subjects were divided into 15 patients with OCS (SOCS+ group; onset at 15.5 +/- 1.6 years) and 17 without OCS (SOCS- group; onset at 15.3 +/- 1.3 years). Areas of the hippocampus, frontal lobe, corpus callosum and putamen were analysed morphometrically., Results: The left hippocampus was significantly smaller in the SOCS+ group than in the SOCS- and control groups., Conclusion: Reduced size of the left hippocampus in the SOCS+ group supports a neurodevelopmental etiology in this subgroup.