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Cerebral ventricular enlargement and neuroleptic response in chronic schizophrenia: Preliminary findings with risperidone
Author(s) -
Bersani Giuseppe,
Venturi Piero,
Tanfani Giuseppe,
Pancheri Paolo
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
human psychopharmacology: clinical and experimental
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.461
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1099-1077
pISSN - 0885-6222
DOI - 10.1002/hup.470100109
Subject(s) - risperidone , positive and negative syndrome scale , psychopathology , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , medicine , psychology , rating scale , psychiatry , psychosis , developmental psychology
In this pilot clinical study the aim was to investigate whether the clinical response to a chronic treatment with risperidone was related to brain morphology. We evaluated the relationship between Ventricular–Brain Ratio (VBR), and clinical response to risperidone, as assessed through the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Eighteen chronic schizophrenics (DSM III‐R diagnostic criteria) were subjected to a computerized tomographic scan. For the total PANSS and each PANSS subscale (Positive, Negative and General Psychopathology) the percentage change between baseline rating and the score measured at 28, 56 days and 1 year of treatment was calculated. VBR was positively related to the percentage decrement of the total PANSS score, the Negative subscale score and the General Psychopathology subscale score as measured at one year of continuous treatment with risperidone. There was no significant differences between completers (subjects who complete the therapy with risperidone) ( N = 8) and noncompleters ( N = 10) when baseline clinical characteristcs were compared. VBR was not significantly different in the two subgroups.