Objectives:

Recently, studies of individuals at high-risk for schizophrenia have provided insights into brain changes during transitional period. The hippocampal investigations for the pathophysiology in schizophrenia presented hippocampal volume reduction in first episodes psychosis as well as chronic schizophrenia patients. These results suggested that brain structural changes occur in early phase of the illness. Therefore, we investigated hippocampal volume change in ultra-high risk subjects for psychosis (UHR), comparing to patients with schizophrenia (SPR), and normal control.

Methods:

We measured hippocampal volumes of 29 subjects of UHR, 31 subjects of SPR, and 29 healthy controls from their T1-weighted coronal magnetic resonance images with manual tracing.

Results:

We found no hippocampal volume difference among UHR, SPR, and normal controls (UHR ; right 2.408±0.454 cm3 left 2.276±0.433 cm3, , total 4.684±0.867 cm3, SPR ; right 2.249±0.227 cm3, left 2.148±0.273 cm3 , total 4.397±0.483 cm3, Control ; right 2.456±0.30 cm3 , left 2.314±0.339 cm3 , total 4.770±0.619 cm3 ). Also there was no correlation between the hippocampal volume and the magnitude of psychotic symptoms. Structural volume did not differ according to medication status and comorbidity.

Conclusion:

Our findings suggest that hippocampal change would not be a major vulnerable marker for schizophrenia. Further study using complementary imaging methods which could detect subtle structural brain changes as well as larger sample size will be needed.