Effect of age at onset of schizophrenia on white matter abnormalities

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The pattern of brain morphological changes at the early stages of schizophrenia may depend on the age at onset of illness; in children and adolescents with schizophrenia, grey matter deficits are seen in the parietal lobe whereas in individuals with adult onset these are more widespread. AIMS: To examine whether white matter is similarly affected. METHOD: Diffusion tensor imaging was used to compare fractional anisotropy measures in individuals with adolescent-onset (n = 17) and adult-onset schizophrenia (n = 17) with those in age- and gender-matched controls. RESULTS: Compared with their respective controls, individuals with adolescent-onset schizophrenia showed fractional aniso..