Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T18:19:59.092Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Biological Factors in Schizophrenia Structural and Functional Aspects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

E. K. G. Syvälahti
E. K. G. Syvälahti*
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacology, Turku University, Turku, Finland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A number of factors have been proposed as being linked to schizophrenia: genetic, psychological, endocrinological, metabolic, environmental, virological, and auto-immunological factors, as well as neurotransmitter systems and structural disorders of the brain. All may act as predisposing, triggering, or functionally modulating factors in what is probably a condition composed of several types of disorder with varying aetiology. Neuroanatomical and neuromorphological data have revealed ventricular enlargement and diminished frontal and temporal lobe volume in some patients. These changes are concentrated particularly in the hippocampus/parahippocampal gyrus/amygdala, but are relatively small and span some overlap with healthy subjects. Twin studies suggest that at least some of these changes may result from other than genetic factors. Functional disturbances of the brain have also been connected with frontal and temporal structures in some schizophrenic patients. Of the single neurotransmitter substances, dopamine and serotonin appear to represent some of the central restitutive mechanisms whose function is to maintain mental stability; the understanding of their interplay with other neurotransmitters such as noradrenaline, acetylcholine, GABA, and glutamate, should provide a more integrated view of both normal and disturbed brain function.

Type
I. The Theory of Schizophrenia
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 164 , Issue S23: Integrated Approach to Schizophrenia , April 1994 , pp. 9 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Andreasen, N. (1988) Brain imaging: applications in psychiatry. Science, 239, 1381–1388.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blackwood, D. H. R., St Clair, D. M., Muir, W. J., et al (1991) Auditory P300 and eye tracking dysfunction in schizophrenic pedigrees. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 899–909.Google Scholar
Carlsson, A. (1988) The current status of the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology, 1, 179–186.Google Scholar
Crow, T. (1987) Two syndromes of schizophrenia as one pole of continuum of psychosis: a concept of the nature of the pathogen and its genomic locus. In Handbook of Schizophrenia, Vol. 2: Neurochemistry and Neuropharmacology of Schizophrenia in Handbook of Schizophrenia, Vol. 2: Neurochemistry and Neuropharmacology of Schizophrenia (eds Henn, F. A. & DeLisi, L. E.), pp. 17–48. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Dalén, P. & Hays, P. (1990) Aetiological heterogeneity of schizophrenia: the problem and the evidence. British Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 119–122.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, K. L., Kahn, R. S., Ko, G., et al (1991) Dopamine in schizophrenia: a review and reconceptualization. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 1474–1486.Google Scholar
Deutch, A. Y., Moghaddam, B. & Innis, R. B. (1991) Mechanisms of action of atypical antipsychotic drugs: implications for novel therapeutic strategies for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 4, 121–156.Google Scholar
Farde, L., Wiesel, F.-A., Stone-Elander, S., et al (1990) D2 dopamine receptors in neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients: a positron emission tomography study with [11C]-raclopride. Archives of General Psychiatry, 47, 213–219.Google Scholar
Gerfen, C. R., Engber, T. M., Mahan, L. C., et al (1990) D1 and D2 dopamine receptor-regulated gene expression of striatonigral and striatopallidal neurons. Science, 250, 1429–1432.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrison, P. J., McLaughlin, D. & Kerwin, R.W. (1991) Decreased hippocampal expression of a glutamate receptor gene in schizophrenia. Lancet, 337, 450–452.Google Scholar
Hietala, J., Syvälahti, E., Vuorio, K., et al (1991) Striatal dopamine D2 receptor density in neuroleptic-naive schizophrenics studied with positron emission tomography. In Biological Psychiatry, Vol. 2 (eds Racagni, G., Brunello, N. & Fukuda, T.), pp. 386–387. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Hietala, J., Koulu, M., Kuoppämaki, M., et al (1992) Chronic clozapine treatment down-regulates serotonin 5HT-1c receptors in rat brain. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 16, 727–732.Google Scholar
Holzman, P. S., Proctor, L. R. & Hughes, D. W. (1973) Eye tracking patterns in schizophrenia. Science, 181, 179–181.Google Scholar
Ingvar, D. H. & Franzen, G. (1974) Abnormalities of cerebral blood distribution in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 50, 425–462.Google Scholar
Kallioniemi, H. & Syvälahti, E. (1992) Citalopram, a specific inhibitor of serotonin re-uptake in treatment of psychotic and borderline patients. Nordisk Journal of Psychiatry, 46, 181–187.Google Scholar
Lewis, S. (1990). Computerised tomography in schizophrenia 15 years on. British Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 16–24.Google Scholar
Martinot, J.-L., Paillere-Martinot, M. L., Loc'H, C., et al (1991) The estimated density of striatal D2 receptors in schizophrenia: a study with positron emission tomography and 76Br-bromolisuride. British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 346–350.Google Scholar
Meltzer, H. Y. (1991) The significance of serotonin in neuropsychiatric disorders. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 52 (suppl. 12), 70–72.Google Scholar
Mesulam, M. M. (1990) Schizophrenia and the brain. New England Journal of Medicine, 322, 842–845.Google Scholar
Pettegrew, J. W., Kshawan, M. S., Panchalingam, K., et al (1991) Alterations in brain high-energy phosphate and membrane phospholipid metabolism in first-episode, drug-naive schizophrenics. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 563–568.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pilowsky, L. S. (1992) Understanding schizophrenia; structural and functional abnormalities of the brain are present in the condition. British Medical Journal, 305, 327–328.Google Scholar
Roberts, G. W. (1991) Schizophrenia: a neuropathological perspective. British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 8–17.Google Scholar
Saykin, A. J., Gur, R. C., Gur, R. E., et al (1991) Neuropsychological function in schizophrenia: selective impairment in memory and learning. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 618–624.Google Scholar
Sedvall, G. (1990) PET imaging of dopamine receptors in human basal ganglia: relevance to mental illness. Trends in Neurological Sciences, 7, 302–308.Google Scholar
Seeman, P., Bzowej, N. H., Guan, H.-C., et al (1987) Human brain D1 and D2 dopamine receptors in schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. Neuropsychopharmacology, 1, 5–15.Google Scholar
Sibley, D. R. & Monsma, F. J. Jr (1992) Molecular biology of dopamine receptors. Trends in Pharmacological Science, 13, 61–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sokoloff, P., Giros, B., Martres, M.-P., et al (1990) Molecular cloning and characterization of a novel dopamine receptor (D3) as a target for neuroleptics. Nature, 347, 146–151.Google Scholar
Suddath, R. L., Christison, G. W. & Torrey, E. F. (1990) Anatomical abnormalities in the brains of monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia. New England Journal of Medicine, 322, 789–794.Google Scholar
Sunahara, R. K., Guan, H.-C., O'Dowd, B. F., et al (1991) Cloning of the gene for a human dopamine D5 receptor with higher affinity for dopamine than D1 . Nature, 350, 614–619.Google Scholar
Tiihonen, J., Hari, R., Naukkarinen, H., et al (1992) Modified activity of the human auditory cortex during auditory hallucinations. American Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 255–257.Google Scholar
Tol, H. H. M. van Bunzow, J. R., Guan, H.-C., et al (1991) Cloning of the gene for a human dopamine D4 receptor with high affinity for the antipsychotic clozapine. Nature, 350, 610–614.Google Scholar
Tol, H. H. M., Wu, C. M., Guan, H.-C., et al (1992) Multiple dopamine D4 receptor variants in the human population. Nature, 358, 149–152.Google Scholar
Wong, D. F., Wagner, H. N., Tune, L. E., et al (1986) Positron emission tomography reveals elevated D2 dopamine receptors in drug-naive schizophrenics. Science, 234, 1558–1563.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.