Amotivation is associated with smaller ventral striatum volumes in older patients with schizophrenia.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Motivational deficits are prevalent in patients with schizophrenia, persist despite antipsychotic treatment, and predict long-term outcomes. Evidence suggests that patients with greater amotivation have smaller ventral striatum (VS) volumes. We wished to replicate this finding in a sample of older, chronically medicated patients with schizophrenia. Using structural imaging and positron emission tomography, we examined whether amotivation uniquely predicted VS volumes beyond the effects of striatal dopamine D_2/3 receptor (D_2/3 R) blockade by antipsychotics.

Methods

Data from 41 older schizophrenia patients (mean age: 60.2 ± 6.7; 11 female) were reanalysed from previously published imaging data. We constructed multivariate linear stepwise regres

SUBMITTER: Caravaggio F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5807115 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature