Year: 2007
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Despite the high prevalence of cannabis use in schizophrenia, few studies have examined the potential relationship between cannabis exposure and brain structural abnormalities in schizophrenia. AIMS: To investigate prefrontal grey and white matter regions in patients experiencing a first episode of schizophrenia with an additional diagnosis of cannabis use or dependence (n=20) compared with similar patients with no cannabis use (n=31) and healthy volunteers (n=56). METHOD: Volumes of the superior frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate gyrus and orbital frontal lobe were outlined manually from contiguous magnetic resonance images and automatically segmented into grey and white matter. RESULTS: Patients who used cannabis had less anterior cingulate grey matter compared with both patients who did not use cannabis and healthy volunteers. CONCLUSIONS: A defect in the anterior cingulate is associated with a history of cannabis use among patients experiencing a first episode of schizophrenia and could have a role in poor decision-making and in choosing more risky outcomes.
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: G143200756, G2229476948, Addiction and Subsequent Schizophrenia: A Link?, G3343538928, G3831615327, COURSE OF ILLNESS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA: OPTIMIZING OUTCOMES, G4222378963, Neuroimaging Studies of Frontal Lobe Pathology in OCD, G4536920484, G593829946, G6037712047, LONGITUDINAL NEUROIMAGING OF FIRST EPISODE SCHIZOPHRENIA, Preventing Morbidity in First Episode Schizophrenia, G73876903
OpenAlex ID: W2160052664