Progressive brain change in schizophrenia: a prospective longitudinal study of first-episode schizophrenia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Schizophrenia has a characteristic onset during adolescence or young adulthood but also tends to persist throughout life. Structural magnetic resonance studies indicate that brain abnormalities are present at onset, but longitudinal studies to assess neuroprogression have been limited by small samples and short or infrequent follow-up intervals.

Methods

The Iowa Longitudinal Study is a prospective study of 542 first-episode patients who have been followed up to 18 years. In this report, we focus on those patients (n = 202) and control subjects (n = 125) for whom we have adequate structural magnetic resonance data (n = 952 scans) to provide a relatively definitive determination of whether progressive brain change occurs over a time interval of up to 15 years after

SUBMITTER: Andreasen NC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3496792 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature