Antipsychotic and benzodiazepine use and brain morphology in schizophrenia and affective psychoses - Systematic reviews and birth cohort study

• Published in: Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
• Main Authors: Huhtaniska, Sanna, korkala, Likka, Heikka, Tuomas, Björnholm, Lassi, Lehtiniemi, Heli, Hulkko, Anja P., Moilanen, Jani S., Tohka, Jussi, Manjón Herrera, José Vicente, Coupé, Pierrick, Kiviniemi, Vesa, Isohanni, Matti, Koponen, Hannu, Murray, Graham K., Miettunen, Jouko
• Other Authors: Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Física Aplicada - Departament de Física Aplicada, Academy of Finland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2018
• Subjects: Schizophrenia; Affective psychoses; Brain; MRI; Psychopharmacology; FISICA APLICADA; Orion; Sigrid; Northern Finland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10251/127194; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pscychresns.2018.08.015

[EN] The aim of this paper was to investigate differences in brain structure volumes between schizophrenia and affective psychoses, and whether cumulative lifetime antipsychotic or benzodiazepine doses relate to brain morphology in these groups. We conducted two systematic reviews on the topic and investigated 44 schizophrenia cases and 19 with affective psychoses from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966. The association between lifetime antipsychotic and benzodiazepine dose and brain MRI scans at the age of 43 was investigated using linear regression. Intracranial volume, sex, illness severity, and antipsychotic/benzodiazepine doses were used as covariates. There were no differences between the groups in brain structure volumes. In schizophrenia, after adjusting for benzodiazepine dose and symptoms, a negative association between lifetime antipsychotic dose and the nucleus accumbens volume remained. In affective psychoses, higher lifetime benzodiazepine dose associated with larger volumes of total gray matter and hippocampal volume after controlling for antipsychotic use and symptoms. It seems that in addition to antipsychotics, the severity of symptoms and benzodiazepine dose are also associated with brain structure volumes. These results suggest, that benzodiazepine effects should also be investigated also independently and not only as a confounder. This work was supported by grants from the Academy of Finland (grant numbers 132 071, 278 286, 268 336), the Sigrid Juselius Foundation, the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the Orion Research Foundation sr, the Foundation for Psychiatric Research, The scholarship Fund of the University of Oulu -Tyyni Tani Found, the University of Oulu Scholarship Foundation, the Jalmari and Rauha Ahokas Foundation, The Maud Kuistila Memorial Foundation, the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, and the Oy H Lundbeck Ab. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, interpreting the results or the decision to publish the article. ...