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Post-mortem Study of Chronic Schizophrenic Brains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Bente Pakkenberg*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Neurology, Pav. 4, Hvidovre Hospital, Kettegaards Allé 30, DK-2650 Hvidovre, Denmark

Abstract

Volume measurements were carried out on 29 brains from institutionalised, chronic schizophrenic patients and 30 age and sex-matched controls using a stereological method. The volumes of the total fixated brain, the hemispheres, the cortex, and the central grey matter of the schizophrenic brains were significantly reduced while the volumes of the ventricles were significantly enlarged compared with the control group. The patients had been diagnosed by a psychiatrist on the basis of their case records as having either a Type I or Type II syndrome according to the symptoms they presented in the first years of their disease. The Type II patients were found to have significantly enlarged ventricles compared with the Type I patients.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1987 

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