정신분열병 환자에서의 뇌위축

Brain Atrophy in the Schizophrenics

Cerebral and cerebellar atrophic changes on computerized tomography (CT) scans of 18 schizophrenics and 25 age-matched controls were reviewed. Sizes of variable portions of ventricles and several cisterns were measured and presence of abnormal widenings of several subarachnoid cisterns was investigated on CT scans. The prevalences of both cerebral and cerebellar atrophy were significantly higher(p=0.001, p = 0.001) in the schizophrenics than the controls. However, all of the atrophic changes were questionable or mild except two cases in each supratentorial and infratentorial structures. The cerebral and cerebellar atrophic changes had statistically significant positive linear correlation. The mean symptom duration was significantly longer in the undifferentiated type than the paranoid type (p = 0.007), in the eases with negative symptom than with positive symptom(p=0. 03). Negative symptoms were more in the undifferentiated type. These findings were consistent with previous reports that correlate the cerebral and cerebellar atrophies with schizophrenia and these results suggest that the brain atrophy in schizophrenics is not an isolated event but a feature of diffuse brain atrophy.