Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-10T19:59:10.911Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Neurodevelopmental Schizophrenia: The Rediscovery of Dementia Praecox

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

Robin M. Murray
Robin M. Murray*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College Hospital, London SE5 8AF
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many people with severe schizophrenia have increased cerebral ventricular size and diffuse reduction in cortical volume; recent attention has focused on subtle malformations of the cytoarchitecture in the hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex. Sufferers also show an excess of dermatoglyphic and minor physical abnormalities, and a significant proportion had psychomotor deficits, cognitive or behavioural problems as children. Such findings suggest that the form of schizophrenia most akin to Kraepelin's original description of dementia praecox results from neurodevelopmental impairment. This may have its origin in genetic defects in the control of early brain growth, or in early environmental hazards such as prenatal exposure to maternal influenza or perinatal complications. How foetal or neonatal lesions produce hallucinations and delusions two or three decades later remains a mystery, but maturational changes in the brain may be important.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 165 , Issue S25: New Standards in the Management and Understanding of Schizophrenia , November 1994 , pp. 6 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akbarian, S., Bunney, W., Potkin, S., et al (1993) Cortical development in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 50, 169–187.Google Scholar
Adams, W., Kendell, R. E., Hare, E. H., et al (1993) Epidemiological evidence that maternal influenza contributes to the aetiology of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 163, 522–534.Google Scholar
Barker, D. J. (1989) The rise and fall of Western diseases. Nature, 338, 371–372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barr, C. E., Mednick, S. A. & Munk-Jorgensen, P. (1990) Exposure to influenza epidemics during gestation and adult schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 47, 869–874.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benes, F. (1989) Myelination of cortical-hippocampal relays during late adolescence. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 15, 585–594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bogerts, B., Ashtari, M., Degreff, G., et al (1990a) Reduced temporal limbic structure volumes on magnetic resonance images in first episode schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 35, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bogerts, B., Falkai, P., Haupto, M., et al (1990b) Post-mortem volume measurements of limbic system and basal ganglia structures in chronic schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 3, 295–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R., Colter, N., Corsellis, J. A. N., et al (1986) Post-mortem evidence of striatal brain changes in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 36–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruton, C. J., Crow, T. J., Frith, C. D., et al (1990) Schizophrenia and the brain. Psychological Medicine, 20, 285–304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Castle, D., Wessely, S., Der, G., et al (1991) The incidence of operationally defined schizophrenia in Camberwell, 1965 to 1984. British Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 790–794.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castle, D. & Murray, R. M. (1991) The neurodevelopmental basis of sex differences in schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine, 21, 565–575.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Castle, D., Scott, K., Wessely, S., et al (1993a) Does social deprivation during gestation and early life predispose to later schizophrenia? Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 28, 1–4.Google Scholar
Castle, D., Wessely, S. & Murray, R. M. (1993b) Sex and schizophrenia: effects of diagnostic stringency, and associations with premorbid variables. British Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 658–664.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crow, T. J., Done, D. J. & Johnstone, E. C. (1991) Schizophrenia and influenza. Lancet, 338, 116–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Der, G., Gupta, S. & Murray, R. M. (1990) Is schizophrenia disappearing? Evidence from England and Wales 1952–1986. Lancet, 335, 513–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Done, D. J., Johnstone, E. C., Frith, C. D., et al (1991) Complications of pregnancy and delivery in relation to psychosis in adult life. British Medical Journal, 302, 1576–1580.Google Scholar
Eagles, J. M., Gibson, I., Bremner, M. N. H., et al (1990) Obstetric complications in DSM–3 schizophrenics and their siblings. Lancet, 335, 1139–1141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feinberg, I. (1983) Schizophrenia: caused by a fault in programmed synaptic elimination during adolescence. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 17, 319–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flor-Henry, P. (1969) Psychosis and temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsia, 10, 363–365.Google Scholar
Foerster, A., Lewis, S., Owen, M., et al (1991a) Premorbid personality in psychosis: effects of sex and diagnosis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 171–176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foerster, A., Lewis, S., Owen, M., et al (1991b) Low birth weight and a family history of schizophrenia predict poor premorbid functioning in psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 5, 3–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freud, S. (1887) Abstracts of scientific writing 1877–1897. In Complete Works, Vol. 3 (ed. Strachey, J.). London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Gill, M., McGuffin, P., Parfitt, E., et al (1993) A linkage study of schizophrenia with DNA markers from the long arm of chromosome 11. Psychological Medicine, 23, 27–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman-Rakic, P. S., Issernoff, A., Schwartz, M. L., et al (1983) The neurobiology of cognitive development. In Handbook of Child Psychology, Vol. II (eds Haith, M. M. & Campass, J. J.), pp. 281–344. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Gottesman, I. I. & Shields, J. (1972) Schizophrenia and Genetics: A Twin Study Vantage Point. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Green, M. F., Satz, P., Soper, H. V., et al (1988) Relationship between physical anomalies and age of onset of schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 666–667.Google Scholar
Gupta, S. & Murray, R. M. (1991) The changing incidence of psychiatry. Schizophrenia: fact or artefact? Directions in Psychiatry, 11, 1–7.Google Scholar
Hare, E. (1988) Temporal factors and trends, including birth seasonality and the viral hypothesis. In Handbook of Schizophrenia, Vol. 3, (ed. Nasrallah, H. A.), pp. 345–377. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Harvey, I., Ron, M., Du Boulay, G., et al (1993) Diffuse reduction of cortical volume in schizophrenia on magnetic resonance imaging. Psychological Medicine, 23, 591–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, I., Persaud, R., Ron, M. A., et al (1994) Volumetric MRI measurement in bipolars compared with schizophrenics and healthy controls. Psychological Medicine (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jakob, H. & Beckman, H. (1986) Prenatal developmental disturbances in the limbic allocortex in schizophrenics. Journal of Neural Transmission, 65, 303–326.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnstone, E. C., Crow, T. C., Frith, C. D., et al (1976) Cerebral ventricular size and cognitive impairment in chronic schizophrenia. Lancet, ii, 924–926.Google Scholar
Jones, P. & Murray, R. M. (1991) The genetics of schizophrenia is the genetics of neurodevelopment. British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 615–623.Google Scholar
Jones, P., Murray, R. M. & Rodgers, B. (1994) Child development preceding adult schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 11, 97.Google Scholar
Kendell, R. E. & Kemp, I. W. (1989) Maternal influenza in the aetiology of schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46, 878–882.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kety, S. (1980) The syndrome of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 421–436.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kinugi, H., Nanko, S. & Takei, N. (1992) Influenza and schizophrenia in Japan. British Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 274–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, J. (1991) Schizophrenia and infection. Lancet, 338, 390.Google Scholar
Kovelman, J. A. & Scheibel, A. B. (1984) A neurohistological correlate of schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 19, 1601–1621.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1896) Dementia praecox. Psychiatrie Barth: Leipzig (5th edn), pp. 426–441. In The Clinical Roots of the Schizophrenia Concept (trans. 1987 by Cutting, J. & Shepherd, M.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, S. W. (1993) A Controlled Quantitative Study of Computed X-Ray Tomography in Functional Psychoses. MD thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Lewis, S. W. & Mezey, G. G. (1985) Clinical correlates of septum pellucidum cavities: an unusual association with psychosis. Psychological Medicine, 15, 43–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, S. W., Reveley, M. A., David, A. S., et al (1988) Agenesis of the corpus callosum and schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine, 18, 341–347.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, S. W., Owen, M. J. & Murray, R. M. (1989) Obstetric complications and schizophrenia: methodology and mechanisms. In Schizophrenia: Scientific Progress (eds Schulz, S. C. & Tamminga, C.). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lipska, B. K., Jaskiw, G. E., Phillips, I., et al (1993) Age-dependent effects of neonatal excitotoxic hippocampal lesions. Schizophrenia Research, 9, 149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGuffin, P., Murray, R. M. & Reveley, A. M. (1987) Genetic influences on the functional psychoses. British Medical Bulletin, 43, 531–556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGuire, P. K., Shah, G. M. S. & Murray, R. M. (1993) Increased blood flow in Broca's area during auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia. Lancet, 342, 703–706.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mednick, S. A., Machon, R. A., Huttenen, M. O., et al (1988) Adult schizophrenia following prenatal exposure to an influenza epidemic. Archives of General Psychiatry, 45, 189–192.Google Scholar
Mellor, C. S. (1992) Dermatoglyphic evidence of fluctuating asymmetry in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 467–472.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murray, R. M., Reveley, A. M. & McGuffin, P. (1986) Genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia. In Schizophrenia (ed. Roy, A.), Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 9, 3–16.Google ScholarPubMed
Murray, R. M., Lewis, S. W., Owen, M. J., et al (1988) The neurodevelopmental origins of dementia praecox. In Schizophrenia: The Major Issues (eds Bebbington, P. & McGuffin, P.), pp. 90–107. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Murray, R. M. & Gill, M. (1990) The potential and pitfalls of molecular genetics for psychiatry: an overview. In Genetic Approaches in the Prevention of Mental Disorders (eds Bulyzhenkov, V., Christen, Y. & Prilipko, L.), pp. 107–115. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, R. M., Jones, P. & O'Callaghan, E. (1991) Foetal brain development and later schizophrenia. Proceedings of Ciba Symposium No. 156. The Childhood Environment and Adult Disease (eds Bock, G. R. & Whelan, J.), pp. 155–171. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Murray, R. M., O'Callaghan, E., Castle, D. J., et al (1992) A neurodevelopmental approach to the classification of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 18, 319–332.Google Scholar
O'Callaghan, E., Sham, P., Takei, N., et al (1991) Schizophrenia after prenatal exposure to 1957 A2 influenza epidemic. Lancet, 337, 1248–1250.Google Scholar
O'Callaghan, E., Gibson, T., Colohan, H., et al (1992) Risk of schizophrenia in adults born after obstetric complications and their association with early onset of illness: a controlled study. British Medical Journal, 305, 1256–1259.Google Scholar
Owen, M. J., Lewis, S. W. & Murray, R. M. (1988) Obstetric complications and schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine, 18, 331–339.Google Scholar
Pakkenberg, B. (1987) Post-mortem study of chronic schizophrenic brains. British Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 744–752.Google Scholar
Pilowsky, L. & Murray, R. M. (1991) Why don't preschizophrenic children have delusions and hallucinations? Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 14, 41–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pilowsky, L., Costa, D. C., Ell, P. J., et al (1994) D2 dopamine receptor binding in the basal ganglia of antipsychotic-free schizophrenic patients – a 123I IBZM SPET (single photon emission tomography) study. Psychological Medicine (in press).Google Scholar
Reveley, A. M., Reveley, M. A., Clifford, C. A., et al (1982) Cerebral ventricular size in twins discordant for schizophrenia. Lancet, i, 540–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, G. P. (1983) Increased concentrations and lateral asymmetry of amygdala or dopamine in schizophrenia. Nature, 305, 527–529.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rifkin, L., Lewis, S., Jones, P. B., et al (1994) Schizophrenic patients of low birth weight show poor premorbid function, and cognitive impairment in adult life. British Journal of Psychiatry (in press).Google Scholar
Ron, M. & Harvey, I. (1990) The brain in schizophrenia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 53, 725–726.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sartorius, N., Jablensky, A., Korten, A., et al (1986) Early manifestations and first contact incidence of schizophrenia in different cultures. Psychological Medicine, 16, 909–928.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Selemon, L. D., Rajkowska, G. & Goldman-Rakic, P. S. (1993) A morphometric analysis of prefrontal areas 9 and 46 in the schizophrenic and normal brain. Schizophrenia Research, 9, 151.Google Scholar
Sham, P. C., O'Callaghan, E., Takei, N., et al (1992) Schizophrenia following prenatal exposure to influenza epidemics between 1939 and 1960. British Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 461–466.Google Scholar
Slater, E. & Beard, A. W. (1962) The schizophrenia-like psychosis of epilepsy. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 55, 1–7.Google Scholar
Suddath, R. L., Christison, G. W., Torrey, E. F., et al (1990) Anatomical abnormalities in the brains of monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia. New England Journal of Medicine, 322, 789–794.Google Scholar
Takei, N., Sham, P. C., O'Callaghan, E., et al (1992) Cities, winter birth and schizophrenia. Lancet, 340, 558–559.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torrey, F. C. (1992) Are we overestimating the genetic contribution to schizophrenia? Schizophrenia Bulletin, 18, 159–170.Google Scholar
Walker, E. (1993) Neurodevelopmental aspects of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 9, 151–152.Google Scholar
Walker, E., Downey, G. & Caspi, A. (1991) Twin studies of psychopathology. Schizophrenia Research, 5, 211–221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walsh, C., Asherson, P., Sham, P., et al (1993) Familial schizophrenia shows no gender difference in age of onset. Schizophrenia Research, 9, 127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinberger, D. R., Cannon-Spoor, E., Potkin, S. G., et al (1980) Poor premorbid adjustment and CT scan abnormalities in chronic schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 1410–1413.Google ScholarPubMed
Wright, P., Gill, M. & Murray, R. M. (1993) Schizophrenia: genetics and the maternal immune response to viral infection. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 48, 40–46.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.