Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T05:41:14.688Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Ventricular System in Chronic Schizophrenic Patients

A Controlled Computed Tomography Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Anand K. Pandurangi ,
Mantosh J. Dewan ,
Seungho Howard Lee ,
Tarakad Ramachandran ,
Benjamin F. Levy ,
Michael Boucher ,
Allan Yozawitz ,
Leslie Major  and
Anand K. Pandurangi
Anand K. Pandurangi
Affiliation:
Upstate Medical Center, State University of New York; now Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry, Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, N.Y., N.Y. 10032
Mantosh J. Dewan*
Affiliation:
Upstate Medical Center, State University of New York and V.A. Medical Center
Seungho Howard Lee
Affiliation:
Upstate Medical Center, State University of New York; now Clinical Professor of Radiology, Rutgers Medical School, Piscattaway, N.J. 07061
Tarakad Ramachandran
Affiliation:
Upstate Medical Center, State University of New York and V.A. Medical Center
Benjamin F. Levy
Affiliation:
Upstate Medical Center, State University of New York; now with the Northern Berkshire Mental Health Association, North Adams, Mass. 01247
Michael Boucher
Affiliation:
Upstate Medical Center, State University of New York and V.A. Medical Center
Allan Yozawitz
Affiliation:
Upstate Medical Center, State University of New York; Director, Neuropsychology Laboratory, Hutchings Psychiatric Center
Leslie Major
Affiliation:
Upstate Medical Center, State University of New York
Anand K. Pandurangi
Affiliation:
Upstate Medical Center, State University of New York
*
∗Correspondence to Dr Dewan at Upstate Medical Center, State University of New York, 750 East Adams Street, Syracuse, New York 13210, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Twenty-three chronic schizophrenic patients and 23 controls, all males between 20 and 40 years of age, were evaluated by CT scan. The lateral, third and fourth ventricles, the Sylvian fissures, and the largest sulcus from each of the frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes, were measured in order to determine whether the previously reported ventriculomegaly in schizophrenics was perhaps due to a disturbance of CSF flow or to atrophy, two common causes of ventricular enlargement. We found that in the schizophrenic group the third and fourth ventricles and both Sylvian fissures were significantly enlarged, but not the lateral ventricles or cerebral sulci. Our data suggest that these ventricular changes are not due to a disturbance of CSF flow or to cerebral atrophy. Other possible explanations are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 144 , Issue 2 , February 1984 , pp. 172 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 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

Andreasen, N. C., Smith, M. R., Jacoby, C. G. Dennert, J. W. & Olsen, S. A. (1982) Ventricular enlargement in schizophrenia; Definition and prevalence. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 292–6.Google ScholarPubMed
Asano, N. (1967) Pneumoencephalographic study of schizophrenia. In Clinical Genetics in Psychiatry: Problems in Nosological Classification (ed. Mitsada, H.). Tokyo: Igaku Shoin Ltd.Google Scholar
Benes, F., Sunderland, P., Jones, B. D., Lemay, M., Cohen, B. M. & Lipinski, J. F. (1982) Normal ventricles in young schizophrenics. British Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 90–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Claus, D. & Aschoff, J. C. (1982) Evaluation of infratentorial atrophy by computed tomography. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 45, 979–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coffman, J. A., Mefferd, J., Golden, C. J., Bloch, S. & Graber, B. (1981) Cerebellar atrophy in chronic schizophrenia. Lancet, i, 666.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewan, M. J., Pandurangi, A. K., Lee, S. H., Ramachandran, T., Levy, B., Boucher, M., Yozawitz, A. & Major, L. (1983) Central brain morphology in chronic schizophrenic patients: A controlled CT study. Biological Psychiatry. 18, 1133–40.Google ScholarPubMed
Fitz, C. R. (1982) The ventricles and subarachnoid spaces in children. In Cranial Computed Tomography (ed. Lee, S. H. and Rao, K.) pp. 201–40. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Gluck, E., Radu, E. W., Mundt, C. & Gerhardt, P. (1980) A computed tomographic prolective trohoc study of chronic schizophrenics. Neuroradiology, 20, 167–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Golden, C. J., Moses, J. A., Zelazowski, R., Graber, B., Zatz, L. M., Horvath, T. B. & Berger, P. A. (1980) Cerebral ventricular size and neuropsychological impairment in young chronic schizophrenics. Archives of General Psychiatry, 37, 619–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haug, J. O. (1962) Pneumoencephalographic studies in mental disease. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. Suppl. 165, 38, 1–114.Google ScholarPubMed
Heath, R. G., Franklin, D. E., Walker, C. F. & Keating, J. W. (1982) Cerebellar vermal atrophy in psychiatric patients. Biological Psychiatry, 17, 569–85.Google ScholarPubMed
Hindmarsh, T. & Greitz, T. (1977) Hydrocephalus, atrophy and their differential diagnosis. CSF dynamics investigated by computer cisternography. In The First European Symposium on Computerized Axial Tomography in Clinical Practice (ed. duBoulay, G. H. and Maselay, I. S.), pp. 205–12. Berlin: Springer-Berlag.Google Scholar
Jernigan, T. L., Zatz, L. M., Moses, J. A. & Berger, P. A. (1982) Computed tomography in schizophrenics and normal volunteers. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 765–70.Google ScholarPubMed
Johnstone, E. C., Crow, T. J., Frith, C. D., Husband, J. & Kreel, L. (1976) Cerebral ventricular size and cognitive impairment in chronic schizophrenia. Lancet, ii, 924–6.Google Scholar
Lippmann, S., Manshadi, M., Baldwin, H., Drasin, G., Rice, J. & Alrajeh, S. (1982) Cerebellar vermis dimensions on computerized tomographic scans of schizophrenic and bipolar patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 667–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Luchins, D. J. (1982) Computed tomography in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 859–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lying-Tunell, U. (1979) Psychotic symptoms in normal pressure hydrocephalus. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 59, 415–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maser, J. D. & Keith, S. J. (1983) CT scans and schizophrenia—report on a workshop. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 9, 265–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meese, W., Kluge, W., Grumme, T. & Hopfenmuller, W. (1980) CT evaluation of the CSF spaces in healthy persons. Neuroradiology, 19, 131–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nasrallah, H. A., Jacoby, C. G. & McCalley-Whitters, M. (1981) Cerebellar atrophy in schizophrenia and mania. Lancet, i, 1102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nasrallah, H. A., Jacoby, C. G., McCalley-Whitters, M. & Kuperman, S. (1982) Cerebral ventricular enlargement in sub-types of chronic schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 774–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyback, H., Wiesel, F. A., Berggren, B. M. & Hindmarsh, T. (1982) Computed tomography of the brain in patients with acute psychosis and in healthy volunteers. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 65, 403–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Okasha, A. & Madkour, O. (1982) Cortical and central atrophy in chronic schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 65, 29–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pearlson, G. D., Veroff, A. E. & McHugh, P. R. (1981) The use of computed tomography in psychiatry: recent applications to schizophrenia, manic-depressive illness and dementia syndromes. The Johns Hopkins Medical Journal, 149, 194–202.Google ScholarPubMed
Reveley, A. M., Clifford, C. A., Reveley, M. A. & Murray, R. M. (1982) Cerebral ventricular size in twins discordant for schizophrenia. Lancet, i, 540–1.Google Scholar
Sabattini, L. (1982) Evaluation and measurement of the normal ventricular and subarachnoid spaces by CT. Neuroradiology, 23, 1–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Soininen, H., Puranen, M. & Riekkinen, P. J. (1982) CT findings in senile dementia and normal aging. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 45, 50–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stevens, J. (1982) Neuropathology of schizophrenia. Archives of General psychiatry, 39, 1131–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tanaka, Y., Hazama, H., Kawahara, R. & Kobayashi, K. (1981) Computerized tomography of the brain in schizophrenic patients. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 63, 191–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Terbrugge, K. G. & Rao, K. C. V. G. (1982) Hydrocephalus and atrophy. In Cranial Computed Tomography (ed. Lee, S. H. and Rao, K. C.) pp. 171–200. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Trimble, M. & Kingsley, D. (1978) Cerebral ventricular size in chronic schizophrenia. Lancet, i, 278–9.Google Scholar
Weinberger, D. R. & Wyatt, R. J. (1982) Brain morphology in schizophrenia. In vivo studies. In Schizophrenia as a Brain Disease (ed. Henn, F. A. and Nasrallah, H.). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weinberger, D. R., Torrey, E. F., Neophytides, A. N. & Wyatt, R. J. (1979a) Lateral cerebral ventricular enlargement in chronic schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 735–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weinberger, D. R., Torrey, E. F. & Wyatt, R. J. (1979b) Cerebellar atrophy in chronic schizophrenia. Lancet, i, 718–9.Google Scholar
Weinberger, D. R., Delisi, L. E., Perman, G. P., Targum, S. & Wyatt, R. J. (1982) Computed tomography in schizophreniform disorder and other acute psychiatric disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 778–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wolpert, S. M. (1977) The ventricular size on computed tomography. Journal of Computer-Assisted Tomography, 1, 222–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.