Focusing on The Association Between Cavum Septum Pellucidum and/or Cavum Vergae and Clinical Symptoms and Drug Therapy in Patients with Schizophrenia.

Abstract

Objective: Septum pellucidum is a thin midline brain structure located in the anterior brain, running in a median-sagittal or midsagittal direction. This study aims at testing whether cavum septum pellucidum (CSP) and cavum vergae (CV) could predict clozapine pre- scribing in patients with schizophrenia. This study also assesses the relationship between CSP/CV and some clinical findings in patients with schizophrenia.

Methods: 190 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia who underwent neuroanatomical evaluation with magnetic resonance imaging during inpatient treatment were included in the study. A personal data form, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) were given to each patient at admission and discharge. The presence or absence of CSP/CV was recorded as "yes" or "no".

Results: The presence of CSP/CV was found to be associated with the number of hospital admissions, the number of electroconvulsive therapy sessions received, PANSS total score at admission, PANSS total score at discharge and clozapine use. In the logistic regression model created, the presence of CSP and total PANSS score were found to predict clozapine prescribing (respectively p = 0.001, p = 0.016). The Nagelkerke's R² value was found to be 0.167.

Conclusions: This study holds the distinction of being the first in the field to investigate the relationship between clozapine prescribing and the presence of CSP/CV in schizophrenia patients. There is a need for longitudinal-cohort studies that can better express effect to identify the conditions associated with CSP/CV.