Correlation Between Changes In Brain Gray Matter Volume And Clinical Symptoms In Patients With Schizophrenia

BackgroundSchizophrenia（SZ）is a serious mental illness with unknown etiology.There are multiple brain structural abnormalities in neuroimaging of SZ.Cortical neurodegeneration plays an important role in the early and acute stages of the disease,and there is a decrease in the volume of gray matter in some brain regions.ObjectivesIn this study,Voxel-Based Morphometry（VBM）was used to investigate the changes of gray matter volume in SZ patients and local brain regions before and after drug treatment,as well as the correlation between gray matter volume and mental symptoms,and to compare and analyze SZ,Major Depressive Disorder（MDD）,and Bipolar Disorder（BD）the brain structural features of three kinds of mental disorders further verify the specific brain regions of SZ.MethodsIn this study,64 patients with recurrent SZ and 32 healthy controls were included in SZ1 group and HC1 group,respectively.70 cases of SZ,85 cases of MDD,42 cases of BD and 95 cases of healthy controls were collected and divided into SZ2 group,MDD group,BD group and HC2 group.The basic data of all subjects were collected.The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale（PANSS）was used to evaluate all SZ patients.Magnetic resonance scanning were performed in the SZ1 group at baseline and 8 weeks after drug treatment,while magnetic resonance scanning were performed only at baseline in the HC1 group.SZ2 group,BD group,MDD group and HC2 group were scanned only when they joined the group.The VBM method was used to compare the difference of gray matter volume between the patient group and the control group at baseline,and the changes of local cerebral gray matter volume before and after antipsychotic treatment in SZ recurrent group.Partial correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between the gray matter volume of two different brain regions and the scores of PANSS.VBM method was used to compare the intergroup differences of gray matter volume among the three groups of SZ,MDD and BD,and to further verify the specific structural brain regions of SZ.ResultsThe study used voxel-based morphometric measurement to compare the gray matter volume of patients with relapsed schizophrenia and the control group,and found that the gray matter volume in some brain regions of the bilateral hippocampus,frontal lobe,parietal lobe,and temporal lobe decreased,but no gray matter volume was found.enlarged brain area.In addition,comparing the whole brain gray matter volume before and after drug treatment in the SZ1 group,it was found that the whole brain gray matter volume was significantly decreased,but the gray matter volume in the left lentiform pallidus and part of the cerebellar vermis brain area was significantly increased.The values of each component of PANSS in patients with schizophrenia decreased significantly after drug treatment.Partial correlation analysis showed that there was a correlation between the right hippocampus and the general pathological scores of PANSS.This study further verified that the left orbital superior frontal gyrus may be the specific structural brain region of SZ by comparing the differences in the gray matter volume of brain structures between the SZ2 group,the MDD group,the BD group and the HC2 group.ConclusionRecurrence of schizophrenia patients with bilateral hippocampus,frontal lobe,parietal lobe,and partial brain regions of the temporal lobe showed reduced gray matter volume.With the progression of the disease,there is a progressive and widespread reduction of gray matter volume in patients with schizophrenia,and the relationship with clinical symptoms is unclear.Meanwhile,the left orbital superior frontal gyrus may be a specific structural brain region for schizophrenia.