The effect of duration of illness and antipsychotics on subcortical volumes in schizophrenia: Analysis of 778 subjects

• Published in: NeuroImage clinical Vol. 17; no. 17; pp. 563 - 569
• Main Authors: Hashimoto, Naoki, Ito, Yoichi M., Okada, Naohiro, Yamamori, Hidenaga, Yasuda, Yuka, Fujimoto, Michiko, Kudo, Noriko, Takemura, Ariyoshi, Son, Shuraku, Narita, Hisashi, Yamamoto, Maeri, Tha, Khin Khin, Katsuki, Asuka, Ohi, Kazutaka, Yamashita, Fumio, Koike, Shinsuke, Takahashi, Tsutomu, Nemoto, Kiyotaka, Fukunaga, Masaki, Onitsuka, Toshiaki, Watanabe, Yoshiyuki, Yamasue, Hidenori, Suzuki, Michio, Kasai, Kiyoto, Kusumi, Ichiro, Hashimoto, Ryota
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 01.01.2018; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Age of Onset; Antipsychotic; Antipsychotic Agents - therapeutic use; Brain - pathology; Duration of illness; Female; Globus pallidus; Hippocampus; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Meta-Analysis as Topic; MRI; Radiology; Regular; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - drug therapy; Schizophrenia - pathology; Young Adult; Schizophrenia; Globus pallidus; Antipsychotic; Duration of illness; MRI; Hippocampus
• ISSN: 2213-1582; 2213-1582
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2017.11.004

The effect of duration of illness and antipsychotic medication on the volumes of subcortical structures in schizophrenia is inconsistent among previous reports. We implemented a large sample analysis utilizing clinical data from 11 institutions in a previous meta-analysis. Imaging and clinical data of 778 schizophrenia subjects were taken from a prospective meta-analysis conducted by the COCORO consortium in Japan. The effect of duration of illness and daily dose and type of antipsychotics were assessed using the linear mixed effect model where the volumes of subcortical structures computed by FreeSurfer were used as a dependent variable and age, sex, duration of illness, daily dose of antipsychotics and intracranial volume were used as independent variables, and the type of protocol was incorporated as a random effect for intercept. The statistical significance of fixed-effect of dependent variable was assessed. Daily dose of antipsychotics was positively associated with left globus pallidus volume and negatively associated with right hippocampus. It was also positively associated with laterality index of globus pallidus. Duration of illness was positively associated with bilateral globus pallidus volumes. Type of antipsychotics did not have any effect on the subcortical volumes. A large sample size, uniform data collection methodology and robust statistical analysis are strengths of the current study. This result suggests that we need special attention to discuss about relationship between subcortical regional brain volumes and pathophysiology of schizophrenia because regional brain volumes may be affected by antipsychotic medication. [Display omitted] •The imaging data as well as prescription data and demographics from 778 patients with schizophrenia from 11 institutions were included.•The effect of protocol was cooperated as random-effect in the linear mixed-effect model.•Significant positive association were found between daily dose of antipsychotics and left globus pallidus volume.•Significant negative association was found between daily dose of antipsychotics and right hippocampus volume.•Significant positive associations were found between duration of illness and bilateral volumes of globus pallidus.