Journal of International Psychiatry

[Abstract] Objective To investigate the changes in brain gray matter MRI volume before and after antipsychotic drug treatment for schizophrenia. Methods Forty patients with schizophrenia from February 2020 to June 2022 and Forty healthy volunteers were the subjects of this study, and set up as observation and control groups. All underwent whole brain gray matter MRI. Brain gray matter volumes of representative brain regions such as superior frontal gyrus, inferior occipital gyrus, and superior parietal gyrus were compared. The observation group was treated with clozapine for 2 months, and the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) assessment and whole-brain gray matter MRI were performed before and after treatment. Results In the observation group, the volume of cerebral gray matter in the right superior frontal gyrus, left inferior occipital gyrus, left superior parietal gyrus, right medial cingulate parabrachial gyrus, and left postcentral gyrus was significantly lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). The volume of cerebral gray matter in all brain regions was significantly lower in the observation group after treatment than before treatment (P<0.05). Positive and negative symptoms and psychopathology scores of PANSS scale were significantly lower in the observation group after treatment than before treatment (P<0.05). Conclusion Patients with schizophrenia have a local decrease in brain gray matter volume and further decrease in brain gray matter volume after antipsychotic medication, and improvement in psychiatric symptoms may not correlate with the decrease in brain gray matter volume.

Key words Schizophrenia; Antipsychotics; Brain Gray Matter; Volume