Hostname: page-component-669899f699-b58lm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-25T14:52:54.374Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Post-mortem Study of Chronic Schizophrenic Brains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Bente Pakkenberg
Bente Pakkenberg*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Neurology, Pav. 4, Hvidovre Hospital, Kettegaards Allé 30, DK-2650 Hvidovre, Denmark
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Volume measurements were carried out on 29 brains from institutionalised, chronic schizophrenic patients and 30 age and sex-matched controls using a stereological method. The volumes of the total fixated brain, the hemispheres, the cortex, and the central grey matter of the schizophrenic brains were significantly reduced while the volumes of the ventricles were significantly enlarged compared with the control group. The patients had been diagnosed by a psychiatrist on the basis of their case records as having either a Type I or Type II syndrome according to the symptoms they presented in the first years of their disease. The Type II patients were found to have significantly enlarged ventricles compared with the Type I patients.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 151 , Issue 6 , December 1987 , pp. 744 - 752
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1987 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Abrams, R. & Taylor, M. A. (1983) The genetics of schizophrenia: a reassessment using modem criteria. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 171–175.Google Scholar
Andreasen, N. C., Smith, M. R., Jacoby, C. G., Dennert, J. W. & Olsen, S. A. (1982) Ventricular enlargement in schizophrenia: definition and prevalence. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 292–296.Google Scholar
Asano, N. (1967) Pneumoencephalographic study of schizophrenia. In Clinical Genetics in Psychiatry: Problems in Neurological Classification (ed. H. Mitsuda). Tokyo: Igaku-Shoin Ltd.Google Scholar
Bamford, C. B. & Bean, H. (1932) A histological study of a series of cases of acute dementia prxcox. Journal of Mental Science, 78, 353–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleuler, E. (1916) Physisch und psychisch in der Pathologic. Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologic und Psychiatric, 30, 426–475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavalieri, B. (1966) Geometria degli Indivisibili. Torino: Unione Tipografico-Editrice.Google Scholar
Crow, T. J. (1982) The biology of schizophrenia. Experientia, 38, 1275–1282.Google Scholar
Devous, M. D., Raese, J. D., Herman, J. H., Paulman, R. G., Gregory, R. R., Rush, A. J., Chehabi, H. H. & Bonte, F. J. (1985) Regional cerebral blood flow in schizophrenic patients at rest and during Wisconsin card sort tasks. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 5, 201–202.Google Scholar
DiChiro, G. (1983) In: CT scans and schizophrenia-report on a workshop (J. D. Maser & S. J. Keith). Schizophrenia Bulletin, 9, 265–283.Google Scholar
Dunlap, C. B. (1924) Dementia praecox: some preliminary observations on brains from carefully selected cases and a consideration of certain sources of error. American Journal of Psychiatry, 80, 403–421.Google Scholar
Geraud, G., Arne-Bes, M. C., Granier, F., Guell, A., Chabrol, H. & Bes, A. (1985) Regional distribution of cerebral blood flow in schizophrenia. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 5, 183–184.Google Scholar
Goldstein, P. C., Brown, G. G., Welch, K. M. A., Marcus, A., Ewing, J. R. & Rosenbaum, G. (1985) Age-related decline of rCBF in schizophrenia and major affective disorder. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 5, 203–204.Google Scholar
Gyldensted, C. (1977) Measurements of the normal ventricular system and hemispheric sulci of 100 adults with computed tomography. Neuroradiology, 14, 183–192.Google Scholar
Hauc, J. O. (1962) Pneumoencephalographic studies in mental disease. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 38, 1–114.Google Scholar
Haug, H., Kohl, S., Mecke, E., Sass, N. L. & Wasner, K. (1984) The significance of morphometric procedures in the investigation of age changes in cytoarchitectomic structures of human brain. Journal für Himforschung, 25, 353–374.Google Scholar
Herold, S., Leenders, K. L., Turton, D. R., Kensett, M. J., Pike, V. W., Clark, J. C., Brooks, D. J., Crow, T. J., Owen, F., Cooper, S. & Johnstone, E. C. (1985) Dopamine receptor binding in schizophrenic patients as measured with 1C-methylspiperone and PET. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 5, 191–192.Google Scholar
Huber, G. (1957) Pneumoencephatographische und Psychopatho-logische Bilder bei Endogen Psychosen. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Jacoby, R. J. & Levy, R. (1980) Computed tomography in the elderly: I. The normal population. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 270–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnstone, E. C., Frith, C. D., Crow, T. J. Hubbard, E. J. & Kreel, L. (1976) Cerebral ventricular size and cognitive impairment in chronic schizophrenia. The Lancet, ii, 924–926.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kety, S. S., Rosenthal, D. & Wender, P. H. (1971) Mental illness in the biological and adoptive families of adopted schizophrenics. American Journal of Psychiatry, 128, 302–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kovelman, J. A. & Scheibel, A. B. (1986) Biological substrates of schizophrenia. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, 73, 1–32.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1896) Psychiatric. Leipzig: J. A. Barth.Google Scholar
Messert, B., Wannamaker, B. B. & Dudley, A. W. (1972) Revaluation of the size of the lateral ventricles of the brain: post-mortem study of an adult population. Neurology, 22, 941–951.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miskolczy, D. (1937) Die drtliche Vertcilung der Gehirnverander-ungen bei der Schizophrenic. Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, 158, 203–208.Google Scholar
Nasrallah, H. A., Jacoby, C. G., McCalley-Whitters, M. & Kuberman, S. (1982a) Cerebral ventricular enlargement in subtypes of chronic schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 774–777.Google Scholar
Nasrallah, H. A., Jacoby, C. G., McCalley-Whitters, M., Kuberman, S., Rizzo, M., Damasio, H., McCalley-Whitters, M., Kuperman, S. & Jacoby, C. G. (19826) Neurological differences between paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenia: Part II. Computerized tomographic findings. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 43, 307–309.Google Scholar
Nilsson, A., Risbero, J. & Gustafson, L. (1985) Regional cerebral blood flow in paranoid states before and during haloperidol treatment. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 5, 195–196.Google Scholar
Nyback, H., Wiesel, F.-A., Berggren, B.-M. & Hindmaxsk, T. (1982) Computed tomography of the brain in patients with acute psychosis and in healthy volunteers. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 65, 403–414.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Owen, F., Cross, A. J., Crow, T. J., Longden, A., Poulter, M. & Riley, G. J. (1978) Increased dopamine receptor sensitivity in schizophrenia. The Lancet, ii, 223–226.Google Scholar
Pakkenberg, H. & Voigt, J. (1964) Brain weight of the Danes. Acta Anatomica, 56, 297–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, G. (1937) Zur Frage der pathologischer Anatomic der Schizophrenic. Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatric, 160, 361–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pope, H. G., Jonas, J. M., Cohen, M. M. & Lipinski, J. P. (1982) Failure to find evidence of schizophrenia in first-degree relatives of schizophrenic probands. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 826–828.Google ScholarPubMed
Rosenthal, D. (1970) Genetic Theory and Abnormal Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Scheidegger, S. (1942) Der gegenwärtige stand der anatomischen Erforschung der Schizophrenic. Confmia Neurologica, 5, 65–70.Google Scholar
Slater, E. (1938) Zur Erbpathologie des manisch-depressiven Irreseins: die Eltem und Kinder von Manisch-Depressiven. Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, 163, 1–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spielmeyer, W. (1930) The problem of the anatomy of schizophrenia. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 72, 241–244.Google Scholar
Tsuang, M. T., Winokur, G. & Crowe, R. R. (1980) Morbidity risks of schizophrenia and affective disorders among first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia, mania, depression and surgical conditions. British Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 497–504.Google Scholar
Warkentin, S., Nilsson, A., Karlson, S., Risberg, J., Flekkoj, K., Franzen, G. & Gustafson, L. (1985) Regional cerebral blood flow in schizophrenia and cycloid psychosis. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 5, 185–186.Google Scholar
Watanabe, M. (1934) Beiträge zur Histopathologic des gehirns von Dementia praccox. Japanese Journal of Medical Sciences, 3, 97–107.Google Scholar
Weibel, E. R. (1979) Stereological Methods, Vol. 1. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Weinberger, D. R. (1984) Computed tomography (CT) findings in schizophrenia: speculation on the meaning of it all. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 18, 477–490.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinberger, D. R., Bigelow, L. B., Kleinman, J. E., Klein, S. T., Rosenblatt, J. E. & Wyatt, R. J. (1980) Cerebral ventricular enlargement in chronic schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 37, 11–13.Google Scholar
Weinberger, D. R., Bigelow, L. B., Kleinman, J. E., Klein, S. T., Rosenblatt, J. E., Wyatt, R. J. & Wyatt, R. J. (1982) Cerebral morphology in schizophrenia: in vivo studies. In Schizophrenia as a Brain Disease (eds F. Henn & H. Nasrallah). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weinberger, D. R., Bigelow, L. B., Kleinman, J. E., Klein, S. T., Rosenblatt, J. E., Wyatt, R. J., Wyatt, R. J., Delisi, L. E., Perman, G. P., Targum, S. & Wyatt, R. J. (1982) Computed tomography in schizophreniform disorder and other acute psychiatric disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 778–783.Google Scholar
Weinberger, D. R., Bigelow, L. B., Kleinman, J. E., Klein, S. T., Rosenblatt, J. E., Wyatt, R. J., Wyatt, R. J., Delisi, L. E., Perman, G. P., Targum, S., Wyatt, R. J., Wagner, R. L. & Wyatt, R. J. (1983) Neuropathological studies of schizophrenia: a selective review. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 9, 193–212.Google Scholar
Winkelman, N. W. & Book, M. H. (1949) Observations on the histopathology of schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 105, 889–896.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wong, D. F., Wagner, H. N. Jr, Tune, L. E., Dannals, R. F., Pearlson, G. D., Links, J. M., Tamminga, C., Broussolle, E. P., Ravert, H. T., Wilson, A. A., Toung, J. K. T., Williams, J. A., O'Tuama, L. A., Malat, J., Snyder, S. H., Kuhar, M. J. & Gjedde, A. (1986) Positron emission tomography reveals elevated brain D2 dopamine receptors in schizophrenia. Science, 234, 1558–1563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.