Morphological Alterations in Schizophrenia - An Interdisciplinary Review.

Abstract

Schizophrenia is characterized by the presence and persistence of psychiatric symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, thought disorders, or disorganized behavior for at least 1 month. An internal medical examination and the exclusion of other causes for the symptoms are an integral part of the diagnostic procedure. However, despite constant improvements in technology and resolution, radiological imaging of structural changes of the brain is not part of the standard clinical care of schizophrenia patients, except to rule out tumors or other causes for the symptoms. There are many scientific approaches to determine morphological criteria and biomarkers of schizophrenia, which could potentially play a role in diagnosis and follow-up in the future; a summarized assessment of the current state of knowledge regarding structural changes in schizophrenia is therefore necessary. The present review demonstrates that the four disciplines of neuroradiology, genetics, neuropathology, and ophthalmology have made important contributions to the question of structural changes in schizophrenia; the individual contributions are presented and discussed below. The best characterized changes are enlargement of the lateral ventricles, volume reduction of the grey matter with thinning of the cortex, enlargement of the pallidum, diffusion disturbances in the white matter, as well as ophthalmological evidence of thinning of the retinal nerve fiber layer. Equally important are the numerous additional findings whose potential significance for diagnosis and follow-up are emphasized in this review. Particularly noteworthy are significant correlations of individual structural changes with the presence of hallucinations, or even the comparison of patients with high and low cognitive performance scores, as well as correlations between morphological and genetic changes. In summary, our review demonstrates the realistic prospect of a future expanded morphological assessment of the central nervous system in the context of clinical examination. To achieve this goal, there is a need for continued interdisciplinary research into potential morphological biomarkers of schizophrenia.