Schizophrenic Children Have Slower Brain Growth

A recent study, led by Nitin Gogtay from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, shows that white matter in the brain grows slower in children with schizophrenia, as compared to those without the disease. They also found that the right hemisphere of the brain grew slower in children with the disease. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

White matter is responsible for sending messages to the brain. It is the tissue nerve cells. The right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for visual and intuitive information controls. The children with schizophrenia only showed a 1.3 percent growth a year, where children without the disease had a growth of 2.6 percent in white matter. Other studies have found that the gray matter also grows slower in schizophrenic patients. Gray matter is responsible for processing signals.

The study included twelve schizophrenic children and twelve healthy control children. The scans on their brains were done over a period of five years and clearly showed a slower growth rate in the brain for those with schizophrenia. It is worth noting that this did not affect the children's IQ - which was not lower in schizophrenic children. The researchers are hoping that studying children with the disease can give more information about the way the brain develops with the disease and whether treatment can be found for early cases.

Schizophrenia, a condition for which both adults and children may potentially qualify for social security disability benefits, usually occurs in the late teens and early twenties, but some small children develop the disease. Unfortunately, children who develop the disease before the age of 13 years, usually have a more severe case of the disease. There have not been very many studies on children with the disease. Studying children with the disease is opening up a whole new area to study, since these children have not had the time to develop the patterns that most late teens and adults with the disease have, such as alcohol and drug abuse.

Schizophrenia affects 1 percent of Americans over the age of 18 and unfortunately, nearly 10 percent end up committing suicide. Symptoms of the disease include paranoia and hallucinations.