Ventricular enlargement, neuropsychological status, and premorbid function in schizophrenia.

Ventricular enlargement is one of the most consistently documented neurobiological abnormalities in schizophrenia. The timing of the development of this abnormality in the course of schizophrenic illness and its relationship to neuropsychological dysfunction and premorbid adjustment is, however, unclear. To address these questions, we examined the relationship between ventricle-brain ratio (VBR), premorbid adjustment, and neuropsychological function, in 23 acutely exacerbated chronic schizophrenic inpatients. We observed that larger ventricles were associated with better current neuropsychological test performance, better premorbid cognitive ability, greater cognitive deterioration, better childhood premorbid social function, and greater decline in social function from premorbid levels. These data suggest that at least two developmental processes may operate in the genesis of cognitive and social dysfunction in schizophrenia: (1) childhood onset associated with poor premorbid childhood function, low educational achievement, lower intelligence quotient (IQ) and variably with VBR; and (2) adolescent onset associated with relatively normal childhood social function, higher academic achievement and IQ and increased VBR. Ventricular enlargement may reflect a late developmental or degenerative pathological process in schizophrenia.

DeQuardo JR ，Tandon R ，Goldman R ，Meador-Woodruff JH ，McGrath-Giroux M ，Brunberg JA ，Kim L ... -  《BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY》

Premorbid adjustment as a predictor of phenomenological and neurobiological indices in schizophrenia.

Gupta S ，Rajaprabhakaran R ，Arndt S ，Flaum M ，Andreasen NC ... -  《-》

Premorbid adjustment and neuropsychological performance in schizophrenia.

Silverstein ML ，Mavrolefteros G ，Close D 《-》

The Nithsdale Schizophrenia Surveys. XII. 'Neurodevelopmental' Schizophrenia: a search for clinical correlates and putative aetiological factors.

The aim was to examine in a population of schizophrenic patients the clinical correlates of 'neurodevelopmental' schizophrenia and their relationship to putative aetiological factors. Premorbid social adjustment, premorbid schizoid and schizotypal personality traits, and the obstetric history of 40 schizophrenic patients and their 102 sibs were assessed through interviews with their mothers. Patients' premorbid level of intelligence was assessed by the National Adult Reading Test and current symptoms by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and the Subjective Deficit Syndrome Scale. Patients had more schizoid and schizotypal traits than their sibs. They showed a deterioration in social adjustment between childhood and adolescence; sibs' social adjustment improved. There were statistically significant associations between current negative schizophrenic symptoms, premorbid deterioration in social adjustment, and schizoid and schizotypal personality traits, and between an early age of onset of illness and the same premorbid assessments. There was no evidence that patients with a family history of severe mental illness leading to hospitalisation, or a history of definite obstetric complications, had poorer premorbid functioning or more severe current symptoms. We have confirmed clinical correlates of 'neurodevelopmental' schizophrenia but found no association between these and obstetric complications or a family history of severe mental disorder.

McCreadie RG ，Connolly MA ，Williamson DJ ，Athawes RW ，Tilak-Singh D ... -  《BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY》

Premorbid adjustment in schizophrenia: implications for psychosocial and ventricular pathology.

Levitt JJ ，Shenton ME ，McCarley RW ，Faux SF ，Ludwig AS ... -  《-》