Is treatment-resistant schizophrenia associated with distinct neurobiological callosal connectivity abnormalities?. (10th October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Assunção-Leme, Idaiane Batista; Zugman, André; de Moura, Luciana Monteiro; Sato, João Ricardo; Higuchi, Cinthia; Ortiz, Bruno Bertolucci; Noto, Cristiano; Ota, Vanessa Kiyomi; Belangero, Sintia Iole; Bressan, Rodrigo A.; Crossley, Nicolas A.; Jackowski, Andrea P.; Gadelha, Ary
• Is Part Of: CNS spectrums. Volume 26:Number 5(2021)
• Page Start: 545
• Page End: 549
• Publication Date: 2021-10-10
• Subjects: treatment-resistant schizophrenia -- callosal connectivity -- structural neuroimaging -- white matter -- diffusion tensor imaging -- fractional anisotropy; Neuropsychiatry -- Periodicals; Nervous system -- Diseases -- Periodicals; Neurology -- Periodicals; 616.8005
• DOI: 10.1017/S1092852920001753
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1092-8529

Abstract

Abstract: Background: Resistance to antipsychotic treatment affects up to 30% of patients with schizophrenia. Although the time course of development of treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) varies from patient to patient, the reasons for these variations remain unknown. Growing evidence suggests brain dysconnectivity as a significant feature of schizophrenia. In this study, we compared fractional anisotropy (FA) of brain white matter between TRS and non–treatment-resistant schizophrenia (non-TRS) patients. Our central hypothesis was that TRS is associated with reduced FA values. Methods: TRS was defined as the persistence of moderate to severe symptoms after adequate treatment with at least two antipsychotics from different classes. Diffusion-tensor brain MRI obtained images from 34 TRS participants and 51 non-TRS. Whole-brain analysis of FA and axial, radial, and mean diffusivity were performed using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) and FMRIB's Software Library (FSL), yielding a contrast between TRS and non-TRS patients, corrected for multiple comparisons using family-wise error (FWE) < 0.05. Results: We found a significant reduction in FA in the splenium of corpus callosum (CC) in TRS when compared to non-TRS. The antipsychotic dose did not relate to the splenium CC. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the focal abnormality of CC may be a potential biomarker of TRS.