Introduction: Changes of brain morphology are now considered as a part of the pathology of schizophrenia. Voxel-based morphometry may be used to study regional changes of the grey matter in the whole brain. It is advantageous to study first-episode patients to prevent the influence of many possible biasing factors when trying to identify primary pathological processes underlying the manifestation of the illness.
Objective: To investigate regional grey matter changes in the first-episode schizophrenia patients.
Methods: Optimized voxel-based morphometry was used to detect changes in grey matter volume in 22 patients with first-episode schizophrenia compared with 18 healthy volunteers of comparable age, gender and handedness.
Results: The first-episode schizophrenia group had significantly reduced grey matter volume in the prefrontal cortex (inferior and middle prefrontal gyrus, cingulate gyrus). We identified no differences in the temporal cortex.
Conclusion: Our data support the theoretical assumption that prefrontal dysfunction underlines the primary pathology and clinical manifestation of schizophrenia. We are inclined to explain the differences in the pattern of morphological changes reported in other first-episode studies--especially the lack of changes in the temporal cortex--by heterogeneity of schizophrenia, potential progression and antipsychotic medication effect.