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Researchers at the University of Edinburgh studied for ten years 200 people who were at a high risk of developing schizophrenia because two or more family members had already been diagnosed with the illness. The researchers analyzed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 65 of the 200 people, taken on average 18 months apart. They looked specifically for changes in the grey matter –brain tissue made principally of neurons that transmit messages and help store memories.
Eight of the 65 went on to develop schizophrenia an average 2.3 years after the first scan. The scans of each of the eight revealed that they had changes in the grey matter that had happened before they became well.
There is no preventative treatment for schizophrenia because the current methods are good only predicting who won’t develop schizophrenia but not who would. An accurate predictive test could help researches to assess possibilities for prevention in the future, scientists said.
Key changes take place in the grey matter and tracking these changes over time by scans combined with traditional assessments could help doctors to predict the illness.
“It needs to be independently replicated before it would make a difference to the thousands of people living with severe mental illness in the UK,” said Jo Loughran, a member of the schizophrenia charity Rethink.
Symptoms usually develop in men in their late teens or early 20s and 30s. In rare cases the symptoms, which include hallucinations, delusions, disorders, social withdrawal and several other cognitive deficits, could also appear in childhood.