Neurobiological characteristics of the at-risk mental state

Abstract

Background and Aims

The most important clinical problem with schizophrenia is the chronic course of this disease leading to severe medical and social problems. Most of the patients are unable to work at a regular base, to have a partnership or family due to persistent cognitive and emotional disturbances. This is probably caused by progression of the lost of gray matter and of cytoarchitectonical changes in the frontal and temporal lobe as well as in limbic structures. Several studies suggest that so early the patients received psychotherapeutic and/or pharmacological treatment, so better the prognosis. Neurobiological research in the early phase of the beginning schizophrenic psychosis, i.e. so-called prodromal phase, could provide information being relevant for the early recognition of those patients still far away before the acute onset of psychosis, who then can be treated adequately.

Methods

Our research is currently directed to parameters which are found changed in manifest schizophrenic patients, i.e. structural MRI and MR spectroscopy, to neuropsychological and neurophysiological examinations (serotonin indicator LDAEP, P300, P50, MMN).

Results and Conclusions

Comparisons of prodromal patients versus patients with first or multiple episodes as well as of healthy controls revealed a continuum of neurobiological impairments from the early prodromal phase to the chronic state of schizophrenia.