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Consumption of methamphetamine disturbs dopaminergic transmission and sometimes provokes schizophrenia-like-psychosis, named methamphetamine-associated psychosis (MAP). While previous studies have repeatedly reported regional volume reductions in the frontal and temporal areas as neuroanatomical substrates for psychotic symptoms, no study has examined whether such neuroanatomical substrates exist or not in patients with MAP. Magnetic resonance images obtained from twenty patients with MAP and 20 demographically-matched healthy controls (HC) were processed for voxel-based morphometry (VBM) using Diffeomorphic Anatomical Registration using Exponentiated Lie Algebra. An analysis of covariance model was adopted to identify volume differences between subjects with MAP and HC, treating intracranial volume as a confounding covariate. The VBM analyses showed significant gray matter volume reductions in the left perisylvian structures, such as the posterior inferior frontal gyrus and the anterior superior temporal gyrus, and the frontopolar cortices, including its dorsomedial, ventromedial, dorsolateral, and ventrolateral portions, and white matter volume reduction in the orbitofrontal area in the patients with MAP compared with the HC subjects. The smaller regional gray matter volume in the medial portion of the frontopolar cortex was significantly correlated with the severe positive symptoms in the individuals with MAP. The volume reductions in the left perisylvian structure suggest that patients with MAP have a similar pathophysiology to schizophrenia, whereas those in the frontopolar cortices and orbitofrontal area suggest an association with antisocial traits or vulnerability to substance dependence.

Background Brain morphometric measures from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have not been used to discriminate between first-episode patients with schizophrenia and healthy subjects. Methods Magnetic resonance images were acquired from 34 (17 males, 17 females) first-episode schizophrenia patients and 48 (24 males, 24 females) age- and parental socio-economic status-matched healthy subjects. Twenty-nine regions of interest (ROI) were measured on 1-mm-thick coronal slices from the prefrontal and central parts of the brain. Linear discriminant function analysis was conducted using standardized z scores of the volumes of each ROI. Results Discriminant function analysis with cross-validation procedures revealed that brain anatomical variables correctly classified 75.6% of male subjects and 82.9% of female subjects, respectively. The results of the volumetric comparisons of each ROI between patients and controls were generally consistent with those of the previous literature. Conclusions To our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence of MRI-based successful classification between first-episode patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. The potential of these methods for early detection of schizophrenia should be further explored.

Background Although structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have repeatedly demonstrated regional brain structural abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia, relatively few MRI-based studies have attempted to distinguish between patients with first-episode schizophrenia and healthy controls. Method Three-dimensional MR images were acquired from 52 (29 males, 23 females) first-episode schizophrenia patients and 40 (22 males, 18 females) healthy subjects. Multiple brain measures (regional brain volume and cortical thickness) were calculated by a fully automated procedure and were used for group comparison and classification by linear discriminant function analysis. Results Schizophrenia patients showed gray matter volume reductions and cortical thinning in various brain regions predominantly in prefrontal and temporal cortices compared with controls. The classifiers obtained from 66 subjects of the first group successfully assigned 26 subjects of the second group with accuracy above 80%. Conclusion Our results showed that combinations of automated brain measures successfully differentiated first-episode schizophrenia patients from healthy controls. Such neuroimaging approaches may provide objective biological information adjunct to clinical diagnosis of early schizophrenia.