European Neuropsychopharmacology
Volume 20, Issue 7 , Pages 454-458, July 2010

Cigarette smoking and progressive brain volume loss in schizophrenia☆

Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Centre Utrecht, The Netherlands

Received 22 October 2009; received in revised form 21 December 2009; accepted 13 February 2010. published online 15 March 2010.

Abstract 

It is unknown whether the reported brain loss in schizophrenia can be attributed to the effects of tobacco smoking. 96 Patients (54 smokers/42 non-smokers) and 113 control subjects (35/78) were included in a 5-year longitudinal MRI study. Despite the higher prevalence of smoking behavior and the higher number of cigarettes consumed per day in the patients, cigarette smoking did not explain the excessive cerebral (gray matter) volume decreases in the patients. Moreover, smoking was not associated with brain volume change over time in the healthy subjects. However, extremely heavy smoking may contribute to excessive gray matter volume loss in schizophrenia.

Keywords: Schizophrenia, Longitudinal, MRI, Morphology, Smoking

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☆ This paper was presented at Human Brain Mapping, June 2008, Melbourne, Australia.

PII: S0924-977X(10)00042-8

doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2010.02.009

European Neuropsychopharmacology
Volume 20, Issue 7 , Pages 454-458, July 2010

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