The British Journal of Psychiatry (2009) 194: 236-242. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.108.054320
© 2009 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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White matter microstructure in schizophrenia: effects of disorder, duration and medication

Richard Kanaan, MRCPsych, Gareth Barker, PhD, Michael Brammer, PhD, Vincent Giampietro, PhD, Sukhwinder Shergill, MRCPsych, PhD, James Woolley, MRCPsych, Marco Picchioni, MRCPsych, Timothea Toulopoulou, PhD and Philip McGuire, FRCPsych, PhD

King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK

Correspondence: Dr Richard Kanaan, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychological Medicine, PO 62, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RJ, UK. Email: r.kanaan{at}iop.kcl.ac.uk

Declaration of interest

None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

Background

Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging studies in schizophrenia to date have been largely inconsistent. This may reflect variation in methodology, and the use of small samples with differing illness duration and medication exposure.

Aims

To determine the extent and location of white matter microstructural changes in schizophrenia, using optimised diffusion tensor imaging in a large patient sample, and to consider the effects of illness duration and medication exposure.

Method

Scans from 76 patients with schizophrenia and 76 matched controls were used to compare fractional anisotropy, a measure of white matter microstructural integrity, between the groups.

Results

We found widespread clusters of reduced fractional anisotropy in patients, affecting most major white matter tracts. These reductions did not correlate with illness duration, and there was no difference between age-matched chronically and briefly medicated patients.

Conclusions

The finding of widespread fractional anisotropy reductions in our larger sample of patients with schizophrenia may explain some of the inconsistent findings of previous, smaller studies.




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