Brain abnormalities in schizophrenia. A qualitative comparative study of schizophrenic patients and control individuals assessed by magnetic resonance imaging.

The present study examined, by means of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), the qualitative brain abnormalities in a group of 58 schizophrenic patients compared to a group of 58 matched control individuals. The possible relationships between these abnormalities and the demographic and clinical features of the participants in the study were also investigated. Schizophrenic patients presented a higher percentage of bland-moderate enlargement of the periencephalic-subarachnoid spaces (p=0.01) and a widespread cerebral atrophy, the latter below the threshold of significance (p=0.06). In the subset of patients with ventricular asymmetry (right larger than left) the age was significantly lower compared to the age of patients without this abnormality (p=0.04). In the subset of patients with cerebellar cisterns enlargement the age as well as the age of onset was higher in comparison to the one of patients without this abnormality (p=0.02; p=0.006). Taking together with previous studies, these findings underline the importance of qualitative assessment of brain morphology in research and clinical evaluation of patients with schizophrenia.