Brains of sibs of schizophrenics also abnormal

Younger, healthy siblings of patients with schizophrenia show significant brain abnormalities, researchers report in the Archives of General Psychiatry. However, these abnormalities may only be temporary.

It appears that these siblings "share some of the brain ... abnormalities at least in early ages," lead investigator Dr. Nitin Gogtay told Reuters Health. "This would suggest that the ... abnormalities seen in schizophrenia may be genetically influenced, at least in certain parts of the brain."

Gogtay of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues used MRI to examine the brains of 52 healthy siblings of patients with childhood-onset schizophrenia and compared the findings to the MRI scans of healthy individuals without a sibling with schizophrenia.

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The siblings showed abnormalities in the "gray matter" of the brain relative to the comparison group. The gray matter is the portion of the brain that controls sensory perception, including sight and hearing, memory, emotions and speech. However, these deficits disappeared in the siblings by the age of 20 years.

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So, despite a possible genetic influence, continued Gogtay, "in the case of healthy siblings there are probably other protective factors that result in normalization of the brain abnormalities by age 20."

"This normalization process," he concluded, "also appears related to their level of overall functioning, suggesting a plastic — flexible — relationship between gray matter deficits and functioning."