Cited by 364Schizophrenia research and treatmentMental Health and PsychiatryNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior

What Happens After the First Episode? A Review of Progressive Brain Changes in Chronically Ill Patients With Schizophrenia

Open access
Hulshoff Pol, H. E., Kahn, R. S.·2007·Schizophrenia Bulletin

Abstract

Numerous imaging studies have revealed structural brain changes in schizophrenia. Decreases in brain tissue are accompanied by increases in ventricle volumes and cerebrospinal fluid. Whether or not these brain changes are progressive beyond the first episode is subject to debate. To assess if progressive brain changes occur in chronically ill patients, 11 longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography studies were reviewed. Patients were ill for on average 10 years at their initial scan. Follow-up intervals varied between 1 and 10 years. Overall, the findings suggest continuous progressive brain tissue decreases and lateral ventricle volume increases in chronically ill patients, up to at least 20 years after their first symptoms. The extent of progressive brain tissue decrease in patients (-0.5% per year) is twice that of healthy controls (-0.2% per year). These findings are consistent with the extent of postmortem brain tissue loss in schizophrenia. Progressive volume loss seems most pronounced in the frontal and temporal (gray matter) areas. Progressive lateral ventricle volume increases are also found. More pronounced progressive brain changes in patients is associated with poor outcome, more negative symptoms, and a decline in neuropsychological performance in one or some of the studies, but not consistently so. Higher daily cumulative dose of antipsychotic medication intake is either not associated with brain volume changes or with less prominent brain volume changes. The progressive brain changes present in chronic schizophrenia may represent a continuous pathophysiological process taking place in the brains of these patients that warrants further study.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/schbul/sbm168

Cites

62 of 62 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [28]Mittelzweig R. Hirngewicht und Geisteskrankheit. Allg Z Psychiatr Psych Ger Med. 1905;62:31–62. [Google Scholar]
  2. [32]Lewis NDC. The Constitutional Factors in Dementia Praecox: Particular Attention to the Circulatory System and to Some of Endocrine Glands. Nervous and Mental Disease Monography Series. Washington, DC: Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Co; 1923. [Google Scholar]
  3. [33]Broser Hirngewicht und Hirnprozess bei Schizophrenie. Arch Psychiatr Nervenkr. 1949;182:439–449. [Google Scholar]

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Hulshoff Pol, H. E., & Kahn, R. S.
Affiliations
University Medical Center Utrecht (NL)
Venue
Schizophrenia Bulletin
Published
2007-04-09
Volume
34
Issue
2
Pages
354-366
ISSN
  • 0586-7614 (ISSN-L)
  • 1745-1701
OpenAlex
W2147736098
Cited by
364
References
62
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 40
FWCI
16.31
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Schizophrenia Bulletin (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Mental Health and Psychiatry
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
Keywords
chronic schizophrenia
MeSH terms
Brain, Chronic Disease, Humans, Schizophrenia, Disease Progression

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review