Objectives: To examine the neural correlates of emotion processing in treatment-resistant patients with schizophrenia (SCZ-TR).
Methods: Twenty-two SCZ-TR patients on clozapine, 24 schizophrenia patients on antipsychotics other than clozapine, and 39 healthy controls were scanned using functional neuroimaging while viewing positive, negative and neutral images.
Results: Emotionally-laden images (positive and negative) elicited hyper-activations in the dorso-medial prefrontal cortex and left cerebellum in SCZ-TR patients, compared to the two other groups. Similarly, neutral images prompted hyper-activations in the cingulate gyrus in SCZ-TR patients, relative to the two other groups.
Conclusions: Treatment resistance is associated with neuro-functional hyper-activations in schizophrenia patients during emotion processing.
Keywords: Clozapine; Emotion; Schizophrenia; Treatment resistance; fMRI.
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