Morphological and functional neuroimaging studies on progressive changes in schizophrenia.

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Using both morphological and functional neuroimaging techniques, we aimed to elucidate the progressive changes in the brain of patients with schizophrenia. One hundred twenty patients with schizophrenia aged 20 to 49 years, 60 males and 60 females, and 120 age and gender matched healthy controls were examined by magnetic resonance imaging(MRI). Voxel-based morphometry revealed that age-related decline in the brain morphology was larger in the patient group than in the control groups. This indicates the existence of progressive neuropathology in schizophrenia. Further, the difference in the brain morphology between the patient group and the control group were more prominent in male than in female. Thus, future research should take gender difference into account. Positron emission tomography with [11C[DAA1106 makes it possible to evaluate peripheral benzodiazepine receptors which reflect activated microglia and gliosis in the living human brain. We conducted [11C[DAA1106 PET study in a preliminary sample of patients with schizophrenia and controls. However, there was no statistical difference between groups.