VBR in schizophrenia: relationship to family history of psychosis and season of birth

doi:10.1016/0920-9964(95)00003-8

Schizophrenia Research

Volume 20, Issue 3, 5 July 1996, Pages 275-285

https://doi.org/10.1016/0920-9964(95)00003-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

Ventricular enlargement has been consistently demonstrated in schizophrenia using both CT and MRI. Despite this, the structural changes that underlie increased ventricle-brain ratio (VBR) and its relationship to environmental factors (intrauterine viral exposure, obstetric complications, etc.) and family history of schizophrenia remain poorly defined. Increased VBR has been shown in some studies to correlate with an absence of family history of schizophrenia and with Winter-Spring birth. In an attempt to obtain a clearer picture of the contribution of environmental and genetic factors to VBR, we studied 54 patients with DSM III-R schizophrenia. VBR was determined from head CT scans via computerized planimetry. Family history of psychosis and non-psychotic mood disorder was determined with the family informant method. Season of birth was encoded in several ways, including season, trimester and dichotomously. Patients without a family history of psychosis had significantly larger VBR than patients with such a history; family history of mood disorder was not related to VBR. Season of birth was not predictive of VBR. Family history of psychosis and season of birth were not related to each other. These results are in line with prior work demonstrating an association between increased VBR and sporadic (non-familial) schizophrenia. We did not find a relationship between VBR and season of birth, which suggests that risk of perinatal viral exposure and other seasonal environmental factors may not account for the ventricular enlargement in non-familial schizophrenia observed in our sample.

References (61)

R.M. Bilder et al.
Neuropsychological deterioration and CT scan findings in chronic schizophrenia
Schizophr. Res.
(1988)
C.L. Cazzullo et al.
Brain morphology in schizophrenic disorder: prevalence and correlates of diffuse (cortical and subcortical) brain atrophy
Psychiatr. Res.
(1989)
T. d'Amato et al.
Seasonality of birth and ventricular enlargement in chronic schizophrenia
Psychiatry Res. Neuroimaging
(1994)
G. Degreef et al.
Season of birth and CT scan findings in schizophrenic patients
Biol. Psychiatry
(1988)
J.R. DeQuardo et al.
Ventricular enlargement, neuropsychological status, and premorbid function in schizophrenia
Biol. Psychiatry
(1994)
A. Farmer et al.
Classifying schizophrenia
Lancet
(1985)
E.C. Johnstone et al.
Cerebral ventricular size and cognitive impairment in chronic schizophrenia
Lancet
(1976)
R.M. Murray et al.
Towards an aetiological classification of schizophrenia
Lancet
(1985)
E.O. O'Callaghan et al.
The relationship of minor physical anomalies and other putative indices of developmental disturbance in schizophrenia to abnormalities of cerebral structure on magnetic resonance imaging
Biol. Psychiatry
(1995)
R. Reddy et al.
History of obstetric complications, family history, and CT scan findings in schizophrenic patients
Schizophr. Res.
(1990)

A.M. Reveley et al.

The relationship of twinning to the familial-sporadic distinction in schizophrenia

J. Psychiatr. Res.

(1987)

M.A. Roy et al.

Magnetic resonance imaging in familial versus sporadic cases of schizophrenia

Psychiatry Res.

(1994)

S.B. Schwarzkopf et al.

Family history and brain morphology in schizophrenia: an MRI study

Psychiatry Res.

(1991)

A. Vita et al.

A reconsideration of the relationship between cerebral structural abnormalities and family history of schizophrenia

Psychiatry Res.

(1994)

R.B. Zipursky et al.

Seasonality of birth and CT findings in schizophrenia

Biol. Psychiatry

(1987)

American Psychiatric Association

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

(1987)

N.C. Andreasen

Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS)

(1983)

N.C. Andreasen et al.

The family history approach to diagnosis. How useful is it?

Arch. Gen. Psychiatry

(1986)

N.C. Andreasen et al.

Ventricular enlargement in schizophrenia evaluated with computed tomographic scanning. Effects of gender, age, and stage of illness

Arch. Gen. Psychiatry

(1990)

R.M. Bilder

Subtyping in Chronic Schizophrenia: Clinical, Neuropsychological, and Structural Indices of Deterioration

(1985)

J. Boronow et al.

Atrophy limited to the third ventricle in chronic schizophrenic patients. Report of a controlled series

Arch. Gen. Psychiatry

(1985)

T.N. Bradbury et al.

Season of birth in schizophrenia: a review of evidence, methodology and etiology

Psychol. Bull.

(1985)

R. Campbell et al.

CT scan variants and genetic heterogeneity in schizophrenia

Am. J. Psychiatry

(1979)

T.D. Cannon et al.

Developmental brain abnormalities in the offspring of schizophrenic mothers II. Structural brain characteristics of schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder

Arch. Gen. Psychiatry

(1994)

J.A. Coffman et al.

Magnetic resonance brain imaging in schizophrenia

J. Endicott et al.

A diagnostic interview: the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS)

Arch. Gen. Psychiatry

(1978)

A. Farmer et al.

Cerebral ventricular enlargement in chronic schizophrenia: consistencies and contradictions

Br. J. Psychiatry

(1987)

W. Jacobi et al.

Encephalographische studier an chronisch schizophrenen

Arch. Psychiatr. Nervenkr.

(1927)

P.B. Jones et al.

Cerebral ventricle dimensions as risk factors for schizophrenia and affective psychosis: an epidemiological approach to analysis

Psychol. Med.

(1994)

H. Kaiya et al.

Computerised tomography in schizophrenia. Familial versus non-familial forms of illness

Br. J. Psychiatry

(1989)

Cited by (23)

Increased hippocampal volume in schizophrenics' parents with ancestral history of schizophrenia
2002, Schizophrenia Research
Objective: Decreased hippocampal volume is one of the hypothesized pathological features of schizophrenia, but it is not known if this abnormality is familially transmitted. The aim of this study was to measure the hippocampal volume of the parents of schizophrenic probands, in relationship to the apparent transmission of genetic risk.
Method: Eighteen subjects from families consisting of a schizophrenic proband and two clinically unaffected parents were studied. Probands were compared to six control subjects, matched for age, sex, and educational level. The six families were selected so that only one parent had an ancestral family history of schizophrenia. The volumes of both hippocampi were measured by magnetic resonance imaging and adjusted for age and whole brain volume.
Results: The total hippocampal volumes of the parents with ancestral family history of schizophrenia were significantly larger than those of their schizophrenic offspring.
Conclusions: This study suggests that decreased hippocampal volume in schizophrenia is not a familially transmitted abnormality. Rather, it appears that clinically unaffected parents who transmit apparent genetic risk for schizophrenia may have increased hippocampal volume, which may be a protective factor against the illness.
Similar effect of family history of psychosis on Sylvian fissure size and auditory P200 amplitude in schizophrenic and bipolar subjects
2001, Psychiatry Research - Neuroimaging
Several cerebral studies point to the non-specificity of structural and functional changes described in schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. Furthermore, the origin of these changes is still unclear. The present study investigated the effect of a family history (FH) of psychotic disorders in first-degree relatives on computed tomographic (CT) measures (ventricular, cerebral and Sylvian fissure size) and auditory event-related potentials (amplitudes and latencies of peak components in oddball paradigms) in 30 schizophrenic patients and 24 bipolar type I patients. We found a significant correlation between FH and the size of the right Sylvian fissure, and between FH and auditory P200 amplitude. More specifically, the schizophrenic and bipolar patients with negative FH (n=36) had larger right Sylvian fissures and smaller P200 amplitude than patients with positive FH (n=18). These findings were independent of the specific diagnosis, gender, and age of subjects. Our results suggest some underlying process common to schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder, and they provide support for the continuum view of the nosologic structure of psychotic illness.
GABAergic neuronal subtypes in the human frontal cortex - Development and deficits in schizophrenia
2001, Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy
Recent studies have provided evidence for a deficit of GABA-containing interneurons in the frontal cortex in schizophrenia. That this deficit might be brought about during early foetal or neonatal life is a hypothesis consistent with the substantial indications for a neurodevelopmental aetiology of the disease. GABAergic neurons can be defined by the presence of one of three types of calcium binding proteins, which are thought to have neuroprotective properties. We have undertaken an investigation into the postnatal ontology of these neuronal subtypes and find that calretinin expression is relatively constant and present from before birth, calbindin expression is also present early but redistributes in the cortex over the first months of life, while parvalbumin-immunoreactivity is not observed until between 3 and 6 months of age. Investigation of frontal cortical tissue taken post mortem from a series of schizophrenic patients and matched control subjects revealed that parvalbumin-, but not calretinin-immunoreactive cells are significantly diminished in schizophrenia. These observations support the hypothesis that GABAergic deficits in schizophrenia may stem from toxic events occurring during cortical development which selectively target immature neurons before protection by parvalbumin is conferred.
Season of birth, gender and negative symptoms in schizophrenia
2001, European Psychiatry
The aim of this study was to ascertain whether the symptom profile distinguishes between schizophrenic patients born in the winter and early spring and those born in other seasons. The sample consisted of 204 patients with a DSM-III-R diagnosis of schizophrenia who had been hospitalized for acute psychotic decompensation. Symptom ratings were based on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). The use of demographic and anamnestic data as dependent variables did not detect any season-of-birth effect. In contrast, clear gender-specific differences emerged from the comparison focusing on symptom dimensions and clinical subtype. Female patients born in the winter and early spring had higher scores on the PANSS negative scale and anergia factor whereas male patients born in other seasons had higher scores on the PANSS anergia factor. In addition, we found a gender-specific association between season of birth and clinical subtype. Most paranoid female patients were born in the non-winter months whereas, among men, a slightly higher percentage of paranoid patients were born in winter months. These results suggest that gender plays a role in modulating the effect of the season of birth on symptoms of schizophrenia.
Semantic verbal fluency deficit as a familial trait marker in schizophrenia
2000, Psychiatry Research
This study examined neurocognitive deficits as familial vulnerability factors to schizophrenia. Twenty-three Chinese schizophrenic patients, 21 of their non-psychotic siblings and 26 healthy volunteers, matched for age, sex and education, were assessed by using a battery of neurocognitive tests including: Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), semantic verbal fluency, logical memory, digit span, information, comprehension and similarity. The results showed that siblings had significantly less word output in the verbal fluency test as compared to controls. No significant difference was found between siblings and controls for other tests except that a trend difference was noted for the performance on the similarity test and number of categories completed on the WCST. The verbal fluency abnormality can be considered as a familial trait marker for schizophrenia. Relationships between the residual symptoms after an acute psychotic episode and the magnitude of familial risk were examined. More severe residual symptoms of probands at clinical remission could be predicted by their older age of onset and by better verbal fluency performance in their non-psychotic siblings. This tentatively suggests that patients with a milder genetic form of schizophrenic illness may have a more severe environmental contribution to cerebral insult according to the multifactorial/threshold model. The environmental cerebral insult may cause structural abnormalities leading to incomplete remission of clinical symptoms.
Landmark-based morphometric analysis of first-episode schizophrenia
1999, Biological Psychiatry
Background: The goal of this investigation was to utilize landmark-based shape analysis and image averaging to determine the sites and extent of specific structural changes in first-episode schizophrenia.
Methods: Neuroanatomic structures identified on midsagittal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were compared between 20 patients with schizophrenia and 22 normal control subjects. The difference between averaged landmark configurations in the two groups was visualized as a shape deformation by a thin-plate spline and through averaged MRI images for both groups.
Results: A shape difference was found to be statistically significant; by inspection, it is contrast between differences in two closely abutting regions, involving primarily the posterior corpus callosum and upper brain stem — the “focus” is the relation between them.
Conclusions: The findings are consistent with prior studies suggesting involvement in schizophrenia of the corpus callosum and the limbic structures contributing to the corpus callosum; the possibility of local pathology primarily involving the brain stem cannot be excluded. The methods of landmark-based shape analysis and image averaging utilized in this study can complement the “region-of-interest” method of investigating morphometric abnormalities by characterizing the spatial relationships among structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia.

View all citing articles on Scopus

^☆: Presented in part at the Society of Biological Psychiatry Annual Meeting, Miami, 1995, and the 5th International Congress on Schizophrenia Research, Warm Springs, Virginia, 1995.

View full text

VBR in schizophrenia: relationship to family history of psychosis and season of birth☆

Abstract

Schizophr. Res.

Psychiatr. Res.

Psychiatry Res. Neuroimaging

Biol. Psychiatry

Biol. Psychiatry

Lancet

Lancet

Lancet

Biol. Psychiatry

Schizophr. Res.

J. Psychiatr. Res.

Psychiatry Res.

Psychiatry Res.

Psychiatry Res.

Biol. Psychiatry

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS)

The family history approach to diagnosis. How useful is it?

Arch. Gen. Psychiatry

Ventricular enlargement in schizophrenia evaluated with computed tomographic scanning. Effects of gender, age, and stage of illness

Arch. Gen. Psychiatry

Subtyping in Chronic Schizophrenia: Clinical, Neuropsychological, and Structural Indices of Deterioration

Atrophy limited to the third ventricle in chronic schizophrenic patients. Report of a controlled series

Arch. Gen. Psychiatry

Season of birth in schizophrenia: a review of evidence, methodology and etiology

Psychol. Bull.

CT scan variants and genetic heterogeneity in schizophrenia

Am. J. Psychiatry

Developmental brain abnormalities in the offspring of schizophrenic mothers II. Structural brain characteristics of schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder

Arch. Gen. Psychiatry

Magnetic resonance brain imaging in schizophrenia

A diagnostic interview: the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS)

Arch. Gen. Psychiatry

Cerebral ventricular enlargement in chronic schizophrenia: consistencies and contradictions

Br. J. Psychiatry

Encephalographische studier an chronisch schizophrenen

Arch. Psychiatr. Nervenkr.

Cerebral ventricle dimensions as risk factors for schizophrenia and affective psychosis: an epidemiological approach to analysis

Psychol. Med.

Computerised tomography in schizophrenia. Familial versus non-familial forms of illness

Br. J. Psychiatry