White matter microstructural organizations in patients with severe treatment-resistant schizophrenia: A diffusion tensor imaging study

Publication date: Available online 18 January 2020Source: Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological PsychiatryAuthor(s): Ryo Ochi, Yoshihiro Noda, Shohei Tsuchimoto, Ryosuke Tarumi, Shiori Honda, Karin Matsushita, Sakiko Tsugawa, Eric Plitman, Fumi Masuda, Kamiyu Ogyu, Masataka Wada, Takahiro Miyazaki, Shinya Fujii, M. Mallar Chakravarty, Ariel Graff-Guerrero, Hiroyuki Uchida, Masaru Mimura, Shinichiro NakajimaAbstractPrevious diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies have reported white matter alterations in patients with schizophrenia. Notably, one third of this population does not respond to first-line antipsychotics and is thus referred to as treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS). Despite potentially distinct neural bases between TRS and non-TRS, few studies have compared white matter integrity between these groups. In order to reflect clinical picture of TRS, we enrolled TRS patients who had severe symptoms. According to the consensus criteria for TRS. TRS was defined by severe positive symptomatology despite optimal antipsychotic treatment. Fractional anisotropy (FA), an index of white matter integrity, was examined by DTI and analyzed with tract-based spatial statistics in 24 TRS patients (mean PANSS = 108.9), 28 non-TRS patients (mean PANSS = 50.0), and 27 healthy controls (HCs) for group comparison. Additionally, correlation analyses were conducted between FA values and symptomatology. The TRS group had lower FA values in multiple tracts (cerebral pe...
Source: Progress in Neuro Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research