Lifetime antipsychotic use and brain structures in schizophrenia and other psychoses – 43-year study of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S100-S101
Author(s):  
S. Huhtaniska ◽  
I. Korkala ◽  
T. Heikka ◽  
J. Tohka ◽  
J. Manjon ◽  
...  

IntroductionThe effects of long-term antipsychotic medication use on structural brain changes in psychoses are still unknown. Severity and duration of illness are key confounders when evaluating antipsychotic effects on brain morphology.ObjectivesUnderstanding the role of antipsychotic medication on brain morphology in psychoses.AimsTo analyze whether cumulative lifetime or current antipsychotic medication dose relates to brain morphology in schizophrenia and other psychoses at age of 43 years.MethodsForty-four schizophrenia cases and 35 with other psychoses from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 were scanned on a 1.5T GE Signa scanner and brain structures were extracted using volBrain automated volumetry system (http://volbrain.upv.es). Data of antipsychotic medication were collected from medical records and interviews. We used linear regression model to analyze the effect of antipsychotic medication on brain volumes and used intracranial volume and onset age as covariates. We also performed additional analyses adding psychotic symptoms (PANSS Total score) as a covariate.ResultsHigher lifetime and current dose associated to left lateral ventricle increase (b = 0.33, P = 0.033; b = 0.307, P = 0.042, respectively) and right and left accumbens decrease (b = −0.405, P = 0.013, b = −0.404, P = 0.010; b = −0.302, P = 0.027, b = −0.282, P = 0.036, respectively) in schizophrenia but not in other psychoses. When PANSS was added to the model, the findings remained regarding right and left accumbens, but not regarding left lateral ventricle.ConclusionsIt seems that antipsychotic medication affects the brain in schizophrenia, but not in the heterogeneous group of other psychoses. In schizophrenia, brain changes associated to antipsychotic medication cannot be explained by illness duration or symptom severity.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Schoorl ◽  
Miruna C. Barbu ◽  
Xueyi Shen ◽  
Mat R. Harris ◽  
Mark J. Adams ◽  
...  

AbstractThere has been a substantial amount of research reporting the neuroanatomical associations of psychotic symptoms in people with schizophrenia. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the neuroimaging correlates of subclinical psychotic symptoms, so-called “psychotic-like experiences” (PLEs), within large healthy populations. PLEs are relatively common in the general population (7–13%), can be distressing and negatively affect health. This study therefore examined gray and white matter associations of four different PLEs (auditory or visual PLEs, and delusional ideas about conspiracies or communications) in subjects of the UK Biobank study with neuroimaging data (N = 21,390, mean age = 63 years). We tested for associations between any PLE (N = 768) and individual PLEs with gray and white matter brain structures, controlling for sex, age, intracranial volume, scanning site, and position in the scanner. Individuals that reported having experienced auditory hallucinations (N = 272) were found to have smaller volumes of the caudate, putamen, and accumbens (β = −0.115–0.134, pcorrected = 0.048–0.036), and reduced temporal lobe volume (β = −0.017, pcorrected = 0.047) compared to those that did not. People who indicated that they had ever believed in unreal conspiracies (N = 111) had a larger volume of the left amygdala (β = 0.023, pcorrected = 0.038). Individuals that reported a history of visual PLEs (N = 435) were found to have reduced white matter microstructure of the forceps major (β = −0.029, pcorrected = 0.009), an effect that was more marked in participants who reported PLEs as distressing. These associations were not accounted for by diagnoses of psychotic or depressive illness, nor the known risk factors for psychotic symptoms of childhood adversity or cannabis use. These findings suggest altered regional gray matter volumes and white matter microstructure in association with PLEs in the general population. They further suggest that these alterations may appear more frequently with the presentation of different psychotic symptoms in the absence of clinically diagnosed psychotic disorders.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 371-372
Author(s):  
Shanna Burke ◽  
Tan Li ◽  
Adrienne Grudzien ◽  
Christopher Barnes ◽  
Kevin Hanson ◽  
...  

Abstract Anxiety has been associated with greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and existing research has identified structural differences in regional brain tissue in anxious compared to healthy samples, but results have been variable and somewhat inconsistent. We sought to determine the effect of anxiety on regional brain volumes by cognitive and apolipoprotein e (APOE) e4 status using data from a large, national dataset. A secondary analysis of the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center Uniform (NACC) Data Set was conducted using complete MRI data from 1,371 participants (mean age: 70.5; SD: 11.7). Multiple linear regression was used to estimate the adjusted effect of anxiety (via the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire) on regional brain volumes through measurement of 30 structural MRI biomarkers. Anxiety was associated with lower total brain and total cortical gray matter volumes and increased lateral ventricular volume (p<.05). Lower mean volumes were also observed in all hippocampal, frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, and right occipital lobe volumes among participants who reported anxiety. Conversely, greater ventricular volumes were also correlated with anxiety. Findings suggest that anxiety is associated with significant atrophy in multiple brain regions and ventricular enlargement, even after controlling for intracranial volume and demographic covariates. Anxiety-related changes to brain morphology may contribute to greater AD risk.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Yong Choi ◽  
Jang Jae Lee ◽  
Kyu Yeong Choi ◽  
Uk-Su Choi ◽  
Eun Hyun Seo ◽  
...  

Brain aging is becoming an increasingly important topic, and the norms of brain structures are essential for diagnosing neurodegenerative diseases. However, previous studies of the aging brain have mostly focused on Caucasians, not East Asians. The aim of this paper was to examine ethnic differences in the aging process of brain structures or to determine to what extent ethnicity affects the normative values of lobar and subcortical volumes in clinically normal elderly and the diagnosis in multi-racial patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Lobar and subcortical volumes were measured using FreeSurfer from MRI data of 1,686 normal Koreans (age range 59–89) and 851 Caucasian, non-Hispanic subjects in the ADNI and OASIS datasets. The regression models were designed to predict brain volumes, including ethnicity, age, sex, intracranial volume (ICV), magnetic field strength (MFS), and MRI scanner manufacturers as independent variables. Ethnicity had a significant effect for all lobar (|β| > 0.20, p < 0.001) and subcortical regions (|β| > 0.08, p < 0.001) except left pallidus and bilateral ventricles. To demonstrate the validity of the z-score for AD diagnosis, 420 patients and 420 normal controls were selected evenly from the Korean and Caucasian datasets. The four validation groups divided by race and diagnosis were matched on age and sex using a propensity score matching. We analyzed whether and to what extent the ethnicity adjustment improved the diagnostic power of the logistic regression model that was built using the only z-scores of six regions: bilateral temporal cortices, hippocampi, and amygdalae. The performance of the classifier after ethnicity adjustment was significantly improved compared with the classifier before ethnicity adjustment (ΔAUC = 0.10, D = 7.80, p < 0.001; AUC comparison test using bootstrap). Korean AD dementia patients may not be classified by Caucasian norms of brain volumes because the brain regions vulnerable to AD dementia are bigger in normal Korean elderly peoples. Therefore, ethnicity is an essential factor in establishing normative data for regional volumes in brain aging and applying it to the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 884-884
Author(s):  
Xuan Zhang ◽  
Denise Gaughan ◽  
Chengxuan Qiu ◽  
Osorio Meirelles ◽  
Lenore Launer

Abstract Long sedentary time (ST) is associated with poor brain health but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Studies suggest exercise increases BDNF levels, and that low BDNF levels are associated with cognitive impairment. Limited population-based studies have examined associations among sedentary behavior (SB), BDNF, and brain structures. Here we explore the mediation and interaction effect of BDNF in the association of SB to brain measures. We included 612 participants from the MRI sub-study of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults who had plasma BDNF and SB data at the Year 25 examination. SB was estimated by self-reported average ST hours/day spent sitting while watching television, using computers, and riding transportation. Outcome measures were total and selected brain volumes in cubic centimeters (cc). ST was categorized into quartiles. We used general linear regression to examine the following associations, adjusting for age, sex, race, and intracranial volume: Interactions between BDNF and ST on MRI; ST and MRI; ST and BDNF; BDNF and MRI; and ST, BDNF, and MRI. People in the upper 25%ile ST (>8.4 hours/day) had a decreased TB volume of 12.2 cc (p=0.01) compared to the lower 25%ile (<4.3 hours/day). Neither ST nor brain measures were associated with BDNF (p>0.05). Instead, BDNF interacted with ST for TB and WM (p < 0.03): The difference of brain volumes between the upper and lower 25%ile decreased with increasing BDNF levels. Accordingly, higher BDNF levels may protect brain function in the middle-aged and potentially older populations with a sedentary lifestyle.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eero Silver ◽  
Elmo P. Pulli ◽  
Eeva-Leena Kataja ◽  
Venla Kumpulainen ◽  
Anni Copeland ◽  
...  

Abstract The human brain develops dynamically during early childhood, when the child is sensitive to both genetic programming and extrinsic exposures. Recent studies have found links between prenatal and early life environmental factors, family demographics and the cortical brain morphology in newborns measured by surface area, volume and thickness. Here in this magnetic resonance imaging study, we evaluated whether a similar set of variables associates with cortical surface area and volumes measured in a sample of 170 healthy 5-year-olds from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. We found that child sex, maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index, 5min APGAR score, neonatal intensive care admission and maternal smoking during pregnancy associated with surface areas. Furthermore, child sex, maternal age and maternal level of education associated with brain volumes. Expectedly, many variables deemed important for neonatal brain anatomy (such as birth weight and gestational age at birth) in earlier studies did not associate with brain metrics in our study group of 5-year-olds, which implies that their effects on brain anatomy are age-specific. Future research may benefit from including pre- and perinatal covariates in the analyses when such data are available. Finally, we provide evidence for right lateralization for surface area and volumes except for the temporal lobes. These subtle differences between hemispheres are variable across individuals and may be interesting brain metrics in future studies.


2002 ◽  
Vol 181 (S43) ◽  
pp. s66-s72 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Cahn ◽  
H. E. Hulshoff Pol ◽  
M. Bongers ◽  
H. G. Schnack ◽  
R. C. W. Mandl ◽  
...  

BackgroundAlthough brain volume changes are found in schizophrenia, only a limited number of structural magnetic resonance imaging studies have exclusively examined antipsychotic-naïve patients.AimsTo comprehensively investigate multiple brain structures in a single sample of patients who were antipsychotic-naïve.MethodTwenty antipsychotic-naïve patients with first-episode schizophrenia and 20 healthy comparison subjects were included. Intracranial, total brain, frontal lobe, grey and white matter, cerebellar, hippocampal, parahippocampal, thalamic, caudate nucleus and lateral and third ventricular volumes were measured. Repeated-measures analyses of (co)variance were conducted with intracranial volume as covariate.ResultsThird ventricle volume enlargement was found in patients compared with the healthy subjects. No differences were found in other brain regions.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that some brain abnormalities are present in the early stages of schizophrenia. Moreover, it suggests that brain abnormalities reported in patients with chronic schizophrenia develop in a later stage of the disease and/or are medication induced.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Boden ◽  
James A. Foulds ◽  
Giles Newton-Howes ◽  
Rebecca McKetin

Abstract Background This study examined the association between methamphetamine use and psychotic symptoms in a New Zealand general population birth cohort (n = 1265 at birth). Methods At age 18, 21, 25, 30, and 35, participants reported on their methamphetamine use and psychotic symptoms in the period since the previous interview. Generalized estimating equations modelled the association between methamphetamine use and psychotic symptoms (percentage reporting any symptom, and number of symptoms per participant). Confounding factors included childhood individual characteristics, family socioeconomic circumstances and family functioning. Long term effects of methamphetamine use on psychotic symptoms were assessed by comparing the incidence of psychotic symptoms at age 30–35 for those with and without a history of methamphetamine use prior to age 30. Results After adjusting for confounding factors and time-varying covariate factors including concurrent cannabis use, methamphetamine use was associated with a modest increase in psychosis risk over five waves of data (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.33, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03–1.72 for the percentage measure; and IRR 1.24, 95% CI 1.02–1.50 for the symptom count measure). The increased risk of psychotic symptoms was concentrated among participants who had used at least weekly at any point (adjusted OR 2.85, 95% CI 1.21–6.69). Use of methamphetamine less than weekly was not associated with increased psychosis risk. We found no evidence for a persistent vulnerability to psychosis in the absence of continuing methamphetamine use. Conclusion Methamphetamine use is associated with increased risk of psychotic symptoms in the general population. Increased risk is chiefly confined to people who ever used regularly (at least weekly), and recently.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 783-783
Author(s):  
Jennifer Schrack ◽  
Fangyu Liu ◽  
Amal Wanigatunga ◽  
Yang An ◽  
Christos Davatzikos ◽  
...  

Abstract Walking efficiency (WE) predicts mobility decline and is linked with higher fatigability. Fatigability is associated with cognitive decline and reduced brain volumes (BV), but the link between WE and BV is undefined. We examined associations between WE and BV in 860 participants of the BLSA (mean age 66.4(14.4) years, 54.5% women). WE was assessed during 2.5-minutes of usual-paced walking using indirect calorimetry and standardized per meter (ml/kg/m). BV measures were derived using MRI scans and an automated multi-atlas region-of-interest approach. In linear mixed models adjusted for demographics, education, BMI, intracranial volume, and cognitive status, lower baseline WE was associated with lower total, white, and gray matter, primarily in the frontal and temporal lobes (all p<0.05). Longitudinally, declining WE was associated with increasing ventricular and decreasing hippocampal volumes over follow-up (all p<0.01). Findings suggest rising age-related inefficiencies may reflect underlying brain atrophy and serve as a novel indicator for future interventions.


Author(s):  
Sean R. McWhinney ◽  
◽  
Christoph Abé ◽  
Martin Alda ◽  
Francesco Benedetti ◽  
...  

AbstractIndividuals with bipolar disorders (BD) frequently suffer from obesity, which is often associated with neurostructural alterations. Yet, the effects of obesity on brain structure in BD are under-researched. We obtained MRI-derived brain subcortical volumes and body mass index (BMI) from 1134 BD and 1601 control individuals from 17 independent research sites within the ENIGMA-BD Working Group. We jointly modeled the effects of BD and BMI on subcortical volumes using mixed-effects modeling and tested for mediation of group differences by obesity using nonparametric bootstrapping. All models controlled for age, sex, hemisphere, total intracranial volume, and data collection site. Relative to controls, individuals with BD had significantly higher BMI, larger lateral ventricular volume, and smaller volumes of amygdala, hippocampus, pallidum, caudate, and thalamus. BMI was positively associated with ventricular and amygdala and negatively with pallidal volumes. When analyzed jointly, both BD and BMI remained associated with volumes of lateral ventricles  and amygdala. Adjusting for BMI decreased the BD vs control differences in ventricular volume. Specifically, 18.41% of the association between BD and ventricular volume was mediated by BMI (Z = 2.73, p = 0.006). BMI was associated with similar regional brain volumes as BD, including lateral ventricles, amygdala, and pallidum. Higher BMI may in part account for larger ventricles, one of the most replicated findings in BD. Comorbidity with obesity could explain why neurostructural alterations are more pronounced in some individuals with BD. Future prospective brain imaging studies should investigate whether obesity could be a modifiable risk factor for neuroprogression.


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