Schizophrenia signs found in babies' brains

Washington, June 22, 2010

he first evidence that brain abnormalities associated with schizophrenia are detectable in few-weeks-old babies have been found, say researchers at the Universities of North Carolina (UNC) and Columbia.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder affecting one in 100 people worldwide. Most cases aren't detected until a person starts experiencing symptoms like delusions and hallucinations as a teenager or adult. By that time, the disease has often progressed so far that it can be difficult to treat.

"It allows us to start thinking about how we can identify kids at risk for schizophrenia very early and whether there are things that we can do very early on to lessen the risk," said John H.Gilmore, professor of Psychiatry at the UNC Schizophrenia Research Cenre, who led the study.

The scientists used ultrasound and MRI to examine brain development in babies born to mothers with schizophrenia. Having a first-degree relative with the disease raises a person's risk of schizophrenia to one in 10.

Among boys, the high-risk babies had larger brains and larger lateral ventricles-fluid-filled spaces in the brain-than babies of mothers with no psychiatric illness.

"Could it be that enlargement is an early marker of a brain that's going to be different?," Gilmore speculated. Larger brains size in infants is also associated with autism.

The researchers found no difference in brain size among girls in the study. This fits the overall pattern of schizophrenia, which is more common, and often more severe, in males.

The findings do not necessarily mean the boys with larger brains will develop schizophrenia. Relatives of people with schizophrenia sometimes have subtle brain abnormalities but exhibit few or no symptoms, said an UNC release.

These findings were published online by the American Journal of Psychiatry.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------