doiSerbia

Neurodevelopmental correlates in schizophrenia

Ivković Maja (Institut za psihijatriju, Klinički centar Srbije, Beograd)
Damjanović Aleksandar (Institut za psihijatriju, Klinički centar Srbije, Beograd)
Paunović Vladimir R. (Institut za psihijatriju, Klinički centar Srbije, Beograd)

Contemporary aetiopathogenetic considerations, based on neuro-imaging genetic and developmental neurobiology studies, suggest neurodevelopmental origin of schizophrenia. Several lines of evidence including structural abnormalities on in vivo brain imaging, the excess of prenatal and obstetric complications and the association of congenital and minor physical anomalies with schizophrenia, strongly indicate the neurodevelopmental pathogenesis of schizophrenia. On the other hand, controversial concept of psychotic continuum suggests schizophrenia and depression sharing the same genetic contribution to the pathogenesis. If this would be the case, depression could also be considered as neuro developmental disorder. The aims of the study were to investigate the association between: a) pregnancy and birth complications (PBC), and b) minor physical anomalies (MPA) and schizophrenia or depression. Experimental groups consisted of 60 schizophrenic, 28 major depression patients and 30 healthy controls. All patients were diagnosed according to DSM-IV. Schizophrenic group was divided with regard to PANSS score into positive (n=32) and negative form (n=28) subgroups. PBC information were gathered from maternal recall while MPA were examined by using Waldrop scale for adults. The results showed that negative and positive schizophrenic subgroups had significantly more PBC than depressive group (p<0,05), as well than controls (p<0,001; p<0,05; respectively). There was no significant trend for more PBC in negative than in positive subgroup. All schizophrenic patients had higher rates of MPA than depressives (p<0,05). This trend for more MPA was not significant in comparison with healthy controls. These findings suggest that schizophrenia, especially its negative forms, could be considered as a member of the spectrum of neuro developmental disorders, which does not seem to be the case with depression. PBC and MPA could also be valuable in evaluation of risks for schizophrenia and possible predictive indicators of its development.

Keywords: schizophrenia, neurodevelopment, depression