• Using positron emission tomography, we studied cerebral glucose metabolism in drug-free, age- and sex-matched, righthanded patients with unipolar depression (n =10), bipolar depression (n =10), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with secondary depression (n =10), OCD without major depression (n =14), and normal controls (n =12). Depressed patients were matched for depression on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, and subjects with OCD without depression and OCD with depression had similar levels of OCD pathology. We also studied six non—sex-matched patients with mania. Mean ( ± SD) glucose metabolic rates for the left dorsal anterolateral prefrontal cortex, divided by the rate for the ipsilateral hemisphere as a whole (ALPFC/hem), were similar in the primary depressions (unipolar depression = 1.05 ±0.05; bipolar depression =1.04 ± 0.05), and were significantly lower than those in normal controls (1.12 ± 0.06) or OCD without depression (1.15 ± 0.05). Results for the right hemisphere were similar. Values in subjects with OCD with depression (1.10 0.05) were also significantly lower than in subjects with OCD without depression, and values in subjects with bipolar depression were lower than those in manic subjects (1.12 ± on this measure in the left hemisphere, although results were not significant in the right hemisphere. There was a significant correlation between the HAM-D score and the left ALPFC/hem. With medication for depression (n =12), the left ALPFC/hem increased significantly and the percentage change in the Hamilton scale score correlated with the percentage change in the left ALPFC/hem. These data support other findings that major depression is associated with a left ALPFC abnormality.

Reduction of prefrontal cortex glucose metabolism common to three types of depression.

The "hypofrontality hypothesis" has been supported by many neuroimaging studies, but not all, perhaps because of heterogeneity of samples. The present study examined three different samples that permitted assessment of a variety of confounders, such as effects of long-term treatment, chronicity of illness, and presenting phenomenology: (1) 13 neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients, (2) 23 nonnaive schizophrenic patients who had been relatively chronically ill but were medication free for at least 3 weeks, and (3) 15 healthy normal volunteers. Regional cerebral blood flow was measured using single-photon emission computed tomography with xenon 133 as the tracer. The control condition consisted of looking at undulating colored shapes on a video monitor, while the experimental task was the Tower of London. We observed the Tower of London to be a relatively specific stimulant of the left mesial frontal cortex (probably including parts of the cingulate gyrus) in healthy normal volunteers. Both the neuroleptic-naive and the nonnaive patients lacked this area of activation, as well as a related one in the right parietal cortex (representing the circuitry specifically activated by the Tower of London). Decreased activation occurred only in the patients with high scores for negative symptoms. These results suggest that hypofrontality is related to negative symptoms and is not a long-term effect of neuroleptic treatment or of chronicity of illness.

Hypofrontality in neuroleptic-naive patients and in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Assessment with xenon 133 single-photon emission computed tomography and the Tower of London.

Physiological dysfunction of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia

• A hypothesis of psychosis localization in schizophrenia was derived from studying metabolic alterations in rat brain in response to phencyclidine hydrochloride administration. Since phencyclidine and its selective agonist dizocilpine maleate (MK801) induced overlapping and long-lasting metabolic alterations predominantly in limbic areas, the hypothesis developed that schizophrenic patients with psychosis would evidence functional abnormalities in limbic circuits compared with normal controls. Accordingly, 12 actively psychotic, drug-free patients with schizophrenia and matched normal controls underwent functional brain scans using positron emission tomography and fluorodeoxyglucose. Regions of interest were identified on five matched axial slices in each patient and control subject, and average metabolic rates were calculated. Patients with schizophrenia showed a significantly lower regional cere- bral metabolic rate of glucose in the hippocampus and the anterior cingulate cortex than did normal controls, but not in neocortical areas or in the extrapyramidal system. When the group of schizophrenic patients was divided into deficit and nondeficit types, a preliminary exploratory analysis suggested thalamic, frontal, and parietal cortical hypometabolism in the deficit subgroup, with normal metabolism in the nondeficit patient group in those areas; in contrast, hippocampal and anterior cingulate cortical metabolism was reduced in both deficit and nondeficit subtypes. These results suggest that the limbic system, especially the hippocampus, is functionally involved in schizophrenic psychosis and that different manifestations of schizophrenia may involve different neuronal circuits.

Limbic System Abnormalities Identified in Schizophrenia Using Positron Emission Tomography With Fluorodeoxyglucose and Neocortical Alterations With Deficit Syndrome

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com '--Copyright Blackwell Publishing

/pdf/hypofrontality-in-schizophrenia-a-meta-analysis-of-4cmmfx0x09.pdf

Hypofrontality in schizophrenia: a meta‐analysis of functional imaging studies

Six chronic schizophrenic patients and six age-matched controls were studied with 18fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG) positron emission tomography (PET). All patients were scanned when they had been free of medication for at least 2 weeks. Comparisons were made between the groups on regional ratios of cortical 18FDG, with manual and automated measures. Only one of eight regions, the right temporal cortical region, showed a significant group difference, and this effect was not significant when adjustment was made for multiple comparisons. Secondary analyses suggest that ventricular enlargement and age may be associated with a relatively "hypofrontal" pattern of 18FDG.

/pdf/18fluorodeoxyglucose-pet-in-schizophrenia-1ymt1y0b5g.pdf

Natasha Kusubov

Papers

18Fluorodeoxyglucose PET in schizophrenia