The authors managed to find 21 "drug-naive" studies published between 1995 and April 2009 of patients who had had no more than 4 weeks of antipsychotic treatment. They conclude:-
Most studies of drug-naive patients examined here did not report or detect differences in total brain volume, global grey-matter volume or CSF volumes between patients and controls, including three studies of untreated patients with long-term illness. These results are particularly remarkable, given the difficulty of selecting a comparable control group in these studies. The results suggest that the brain changes found in some first-episode studies may also be attributable to drug treatment, especially because some studies suggest that structural changes may occur after only short periods of treatment.They reinforced this conclusion in response to correspondence:-
As we showed in our systematic review, a large majority of studies with drug-naive patients with psychosis or schizophrenia have not found any differences in global brain or grey-matter volumes, or in total CSF or ventricular volumes between patients and controls (Moncrieff & Leo, 2010). Although some of these studies reported differences in the volumes of specific structures, such as the thalamus and the caudate nuclei, others found no differences and multiple testing suggests some of the results may be false positives.I'm left wondering exactly what the evidence is for Robin Murray's view, mentioned in my previous post, that "subtle brain changes [are] present at onset of schizophrenia".
3 comments:
Duncan,
I wonder why these researchers (the biological psychiatrists of the past) don't consider that adverse experiences (stress, isolation, poverty, possible trauma) might over time cause the brain to change size and shape? Then it wouldn't be a disease but a natural response to experience. This would apply not only to "schizophrenia", but in lesser degrees to what are called "borderline", "bipolar" and so on.
What of the brain scans of successful schizophrenia persons? John Forbes Nash Jr , Rufus May, Daniel B. Fisher. Cherry picking? No, the disease doesn't exist. No blood test, no DNA test etc.
Thought patterns themselves can alter our brains, I have read. Just like muscles can grow bigger or smaller through physical exercise.
Still, this confirms what I have long wondered. There is no discrete pathology linked to what we call schizophrenia.
Thank you for this blog post.
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