Increased prefrontal cerebral blood flow in first-episode schizophrenia following treatment: longitudinal positron emission tomography study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Cognitive deficits, particularly those related to executive function and behavioural control, are a core feature of patients with schizophrenia and implicate disturbances of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Consistent with this, functional imaging studies have identified abnormalities of PFC activity in chronically affected patients. The objective of the current study was to investigate executive-control related neural activity from first onset of the illness through to symptom stabilization. METHOD: The authors examined eight neuroleptic-naïve first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients within 3 days of first presentation and eight healthy age- premorbid-IQ, and gender-matched controls (C..