Health & Medicine - Posted by Leslie Lang-UNC on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 15:00 - 2 Comments 
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(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5) Loading ...Signs of schizophrenia appear in infancy
Brain abnormalities in children at high risk for schizophrenia have been discovered shortly after birth. The infant's brain image on the left shows larger lateral ventricles and a generally larger brain overall. The finding could lead to earlier detection of schizophrenia and enable better prevention and treatment. (Credit: John H. Gilmore, UNC-Chapel Hill)
UNC-CHAPEL HILL (US)—Researchers have provided the first evidence that brain abnormalities associated with the risk of schizophrenia can be detected in babies only a few weeks old.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental disorder affecting one in 100 people worldwide. Most cases aren’t detected until a person starts experiencing symptoms like delusions and hallucinations as a teenager or adult. By that time, the disease has often progressed so far that it can be difficult to treat.
“It allows us to start thinking about how we can identify kids at risk for schizophrenia very early and whether there are things that we can do very early on to lessen the risk,” says lead study author John H. Gilmore, professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of the UNC Schizophrenia Research Center.
Details of the study appear online in the American Journal of Psychiatry and will be published in the September 2010 issue.
Scientists used ultrasound and MRI to examine brain development in 26 babies born to mothers with schizophrenia. Having a first-degree relative with the disease raises a person’s risk of schizophrenia to one in 10. Among boys, the high-risk babies had larger brains and larger lateral ventricles—fluid-filled spaces in the brain—than babies of mothers with no psychiatric illness.
“Could it be that enlargement is an early marker of a brain that’s going to be different?” Gilmore speculates. Larger brain size in infants is also associated with autism.
The researchers found no difference in brain size among girls in the study. This fits the overall pattern of schizophrenia, which is more common, and often more severe, in males.
The findings do not necessarily mean the boys with larger brains will develop schizophrenia. Relatives of people with schizophrenia sometimes have subtle brain abnormalities but exhibit few or no symptoms.
“This is just the very beginning,” says Gilmore. “We’re following these children through childhood.”
The team will continue to measure the children’s brains and will also track their language skills, motor skills, and memory development. They will also continue to recruit women to the study to increase the sample size.
The research provides the first indication that brain abnormalities associated with schizophrenia can be detected early in life. Improving early detection could allow doctors to develop new approaches to prevent high-risk children from developing the disease.
“The research will give us a better sense of when brain development becomes different,” says Gilmore. “And that will help us target interventions.”
Researchers from Columbia University contributed to the study, that was funded by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Foundation of Hope.
More news from UNC-Chapel Hill: http://uncnews.unc.edu/
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2 Comments
Jason K
Trevor Thomas
I agree with Jason. The past several years have yielded a myriad of different articles that claim certain viruses may possibly affect one’s genetic code and thus cause illnesses like schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder. In fact, it has been postulated that the virus may have invaded human DNA millions of years ago and was simply passed from generation to generation. It would be interesting to see an article concerning such viruses make it to Futurity.
With that said, this article offers valuable insight into an exciting scientific discovery. It was a pleasure to read.
These findings and the study they are a part of seem to be generating good data, but I am surprised this article makes no mention of linking infant infections such as toxoplasmosis (which can cause brain abnormalities) with schizophrenia. Infections may not be a focus of this study, but this article’s point seems to be that the data will eventually aid in early detection of schizophrenia and is the first (and thus only) researched indication that brain abnormalities in infants can be linked to their susceptibility to schizophrenia. So, hey, want to try actually keeping up-to-date on the topic you’re reporting on?
There are many published articles on this topic, including the June 6 Discover Magazine.