Brain Scans Could Help Predict Schizophrenia

Brain tissue and schizophrenia

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans have revealed changes in brain tissue in a small group of individuals before they developed schizophrenia.

The research, led by Dr Dominic Job of The University of Edinburgh, suggests that looking at changes in brain structure over time could help doctors to predict whether or not a person who has a family history of schizophrenia will go on to develop the illness.

The study is published today in BioMed Central Medicine and is part of the Medical Research Council funded Edinburgh High Risk study.

For ten years, scientists at The University have followed 200 young people who were at a high risk of developing schizophrenia because two or more members of their family had already been diagnosed with the illness.

The research analysed MRI scans of 65 of the 200 young people, taken on average 18 months apart. Dr Job's team looked specifically for changes in grey matter; brain tissue made principally of neurones which transmit messages and help to store memories.

As members of a high risk group, each person in the study had approximately a 13% risk of developing schizophrenia. The MRI scans revealed changes in brain tissue that increased this prediction to 60% risk for some, thereby increasing clinicians' ability to determine if an individual has an elevated risk.

Eight of the 65 young people (aged 16 - 25 at outset of study) went on to develop schizophrenia on average 2.3 years after their first scan. The MRI scans of each of these eight individuals revealed that they had changes in grey matter that happened before they became unwell.

Dr Job said: "Although there are no preventative treatments for the illness, an accurate predictive test could help researchers to assess possibilities for prevention in the future. Current methods are good for predicting who won't develop schizophrenia but not who will.

"By combining brain imaging with traditional clinical assessments it might be possible to detect people who are at highest risk of the illness early.

"But, because the number of participants in this study was small, the test needs to be independently replicated to confirm that MRI scanning to measure changes in grey matter is a reliable way to predict whether or not a person who is already at high risk, is even more likely to go on to develop schizophrenia."