Work

Slow wave sleep and computed tomographic measures of brain morphology in schizophrenia

Year: 1996

Type: article

Abstract: To test the hypothesis that slow wave sleep in schizophrenia is inversely correlated with ventricular system volume, polysomnography and computed tomographic (CT) brain imaging were carried out in 14 psychiatric patients who met Research Diagnostic Criteria for schizophrenia (h = 11) or schizoaffective disorder (n = 3). Three measures of ventricular system volume were analyzed: (1) raw ventricular volume expressed in cm3; (2) ventricle-to-brain ratio; and (3) ventricular volume corrected for normal variation in age and head size expressed as a standardized (z) score. All three quantifications of ventricular volume were significantly and inversely correlated with visually scored measures of stage 3 and stage 4 sleep. This finding suggests that the etiology of slow wave sleep deficits in schizophrenia is related either directly or indirectly to underlying brain dysmorphology.

Source: Psychiatry Research

DOI: 10.1016/0165-1781(96)02705-9

Authors: Kathleen L. Benson, Edith V. Sullivan, Kelvin O. Lim, John Lauriello, Vincent P. Zarcone, Adolf Pfefferbaum