The negative symptoms of schizophrenia seem to be linked to the loss of grey matter in the brain, according to a ground-breaking study in Edinburgh.
The negative symptoms, such as social withdrawal, have proved harder to treat than the hallucinations associated with the disease, the researchers say.
The findings, reported in the British Journal of Psychiatry, come from a study of young people thought to be at risk of developing the disease.
Over six years researchers carried out structural MRI scans of the brains of the young people.
They found that those who developed strong negative symptoms of schizophrenia were most likely to lose grey matter.
Researcher Professor Stephen Lawrie, of Edinburgh University, said: “Negative symptoms are arguably the most disabling features of schizophrenia and yet are relatively less studied. We have shown here that their emergence in young people at high risk is associated with a loss of grey matter, although we can’t be sure which one is driving the other.
"This and other studies about how schizophrenia develops are opening up the possibility of early detection and treatment of schizophrenia.”
Fellow researcher Dr Andrew McKechanie said: “The underlying biology of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia remains poorly understood and effective treatments have been hard to find.
"The results presented do not overcome these problems but may represent a step towards meaningful understanding of the underpinnings of these disabling symptoms of schizophrenia.”
British Journal of Psychiatry 3 December 2015
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