School of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, 250358, China; Shandong Mental Health Center, Shandong University, Jinan, 250014, China.
School of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, 250358, China.
J Psychiatr Res. 2023 Sep;165:56-63. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.07.012. Epub 2023 Jul 11.
Adult studies have reported atypicalities in the hippocampus and subfields in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) and major depressive disorder (MDD). Both affective and psychotic disorders typically onset in adolescence, when human brain develops rapidly and shows increased susceptibility to adverse environments. However, few in vivo studies have investigated whether hippocampus subfield abnormalities occur in adolescence and whether they differ between SCZ and MDD cases.
We recruited 150 adolescents (49 SCZ patients, 67 MDD patients, and 34 healthy controls) and obtained their structural images. We used FreeSurfer to automatically segment hippocampus into 12 subfields and analyzed subfield volumetric differences between groups by analysis of covariance, covarying for age, sex, and intracranial volume. Composite measures by summing subfield volumes were further compared across groups and analyzed in relation to clinical characteristic.
SCZ adolescents showed significant volume reductions in subfields of CA1, molecular layer, subiculum, parasubiculum, dentate gyrus and CA4 than healthy controls, and almost significant reductions, as compared to the MDD group, in left molecular layer, dentate gyrus, CA2/3 and CA4. Composite analyses showed smaller volumes in SCZ group than in healthy controls in all bilateral composite measures, and reduced volumes in comparison to MDD group in all left composite measures only.
SCZ adolescents exhibited both hippocampal subfield and composite volumes reduction, and also showed greater magnitude of deviance than those diagnosed with MDD, particularly in core CA regions. These results indicate a hippocampal disease process, suggesting a potential intervention marker of early psychotic patients and risk youths.
成人研究报告称精神分裂症（SCZ）和重度抑郁症（MDD）患者的海马体和亚区存在非典型性。情感和精神病性障碍通常在青春期发病，此时人类大脑迅速发育，对不利环境的敏感性增加。然而，很少有体内研究调查青春期是否存在海马亚区异常，以及这些异常是否在 SCZ 和 MDD 病例之间存在差异。
我们招募了 150 名青少年（49 名 SCZ 患者、67 名 MDD 患者和 34 名健康对照者），并获得了他们的结构图像。我们使用 FreeSurfer 自动将海马体分为 12 个亚区，并通过协方差分析比较组间亚区体积差异，协变量为年龄、性别和颅内体积。进一步比较组间的亚区体积总和，并分析与临床特征的关系。
与健康对照组相比，SCZ 青少年的 CA1、分子层、下托、副下托、齿状回和 CA4 亚区体积明显减小，与 MDD 组相比，左分子层、齿状回、CA2/3 和 CA4 亚区体积几乎显著减小。综合分析显示，与健康对照组相比，SCZ 组双侧所有综合指标的体积均较小，与 MDD 组相比，仅左侧所有综合指标的体积均较小。
SCZ 青少年表现出海马体亚区和综合体积减少，与 MDD 患者相比，其偏离程度更大，特别是在核心 CA 区。这些结果表明存在海马体疾病过程，提示早期精神病患者和风险青少年有潜在的干预标志物。
