Structural brain correlates of prominent negative symptoms in medication naïve patients with first episode psychosis

Poster B45, Tuesday, October%209, 11:30%20am%20-%201:00%20pm, Essex%20Ballroom

Arsime Demjaha1, Silvana Galderisi2, Celso Arango3, R Rodriguez-Jimenez4, Andrew Lawrence1, Owen O'Daly1, A Mucci2, Paola Dazzan1, Philip McGuire1; 1Department of Psychosis Studies,IOPPN, KCL, 2University of Naples SUN - Department of Psychiatry, 3Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañon, 4Instituto de Investigación Hospital 12 de Octubre, Madrid; CIBERSAM

Background: Negative symptoms of schizophrenia have been linked to alterations in grey matter in several brain regions however, findings to date have been inconsistent. The existing literature mainly comprises studies with either modest sample size or involved chronic patients, thus the confounding effects of illness progression and antipsychotic treatment cannot be excluded. We investigated gray matter (GM) volumes and cortical thickness in a homogenous first episode psychosis sample prior to starting antipsychotic medication. Method T1-weighted structural MRI brain scans were obtained from 185 medication naïve patients recruited through Optimise trial. We used Voxel-Based Morphometry and FreeSurfer to compare regional brain volumes and cortical thickness respectively between patients with (N=100) and without (N=85) prominent negative symptoms. Results Patients with prominent negative symptoms showed larger left inferior orbitofrontal GM volume and increased cortical thickness in right parahippocampal gyrus compared to patients without prominent negative symptoms. Conclusion This work, using an ideal design, provides further support for the involvement of alterations in orbitofrontal and parahippocampal cortex in pathogenesis of negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

Topic Area: Neuroimaging

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