Open AccessA Longitudinal Study of Alterations of Hippocampal Volumes and Serum BDNF Levels in Association to Atypical Antipsychotics in a Sample of First-Episode Patients with Schizophrenia
Author(s) -
Emmanouil Rizos,
Matilda Papathanasiou,
Panayiota G. Michalopoulou,
E. Laskos,
Argyro Mazioti,
Anastasia N. Kastania,
Konstantina Vasilopoulou,
Paraskevi Nikolaidou,
Dimitrios Margaritis,
Charalabos Papageorgiou,
Ioannis Liappas
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0087997
Subject(s) - schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , hippocampal formation , hippocampus , brain derived neurotrophic factor , medicine , neurotrophic factors , drug naïve , antipsychotic , psychology , psychosis , psychiatry , endocrinology , neuroscience , drug , receptor
Background Schizophrenia is associated with structural and functional abnormalities of the hippocampus, which have been suggested to play an important role in the formation and emergence of schizophrenia syndrome. Patients with schizophrenia exhibit significant bilateral hippocampal volume reduction and progressive hippocampal volume decrease in first-episode patients with schizophrenia has been shown in many neuroimaging studies. Dysfunction of the neurotrophic system has been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The initiation of antipsychotic medication alters the levels of serum Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) levels. However it is unclear whether treatment with antipsychotics is associated with alterations of hippocampal volume and BDNF levels. Methods In the present longitudinal study we investigated the association between serum BDNF levels and hippocampal volumes in a sample of fourteen first-episode drug-naïve patients with schizophrenia (FEP). MRI scans, BDNF and clinical measurements were performed twice: at baseline before the initiation of antipsychotic treatment and 8 months later, while the patients were receiving monotherapy with second generation antipsychotics (SGAs). Results We found that left hippocampal volume was decreased (corrected left HV [t = 2.977, df = 13, p = .011] at follow-up; We also found that the higher the BDNF levels change the higher were the differences of corrected left hippocampus after 8 months of treatment with atypical antipsychotics (Pearson r = 0.597, p = 0.024). Conclusions The association of BDNF with hippocampal volume alterations in schizophrenia merits further investigation and replication in larger longitudinal studies.