Korean J Biol Psychiatry.  2010 Aug;17(3):127-135.

Comparative Study on Initial Symptoms Using Single Photon Emission Computer Tomography in Schizophrenia

• Lee JG
• Kim SM
• Seo YD
• Kim KS
• Wang SK
• Chee IS
• Kim JL

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
This study was conducted to compare between hallucination group and delusion group in patient with schizophrenia, using Brain (99m)Tc-ECD SPECT.
METHODS
Among 16 patients with less than 3 schizophrenic episodes, 8 patients whose initial symptom was hallucination were assigned to the hallucination group, and other 8 patients with initial sumptom of delusion were assinged to the hallucination group. All of the patients clinically evaluated using the PANSS and BPRS. Both groups of patients and 8 healthy subjects underwent (99m)Tc-ECD SPECT.
RESULTS
Score of thinking disturbance subscale of BPRS were significantly lower in the hallucination group than the delusion group. In SPECT analysis, the hallucination group showed significantly increased perfusion in some areas of the right temporal lobe, bilateral limbic lobes and left parietal lobe compared to delusion group. Both group had a reduced rCBF in some areas of the frontal lobe.
CONCLUSION
The hallucniation group, compared with the delusion group, showed significantly increased regional cerebral blood flow in some regions. Therefore, this data suggests that different neural substrates may affect the process of auditory hallucination and delusion.

Keyword

(99m)Tc-ECD SPECT; Brain; Hallucination; Delusion; Schizophrenia; Perfusion

MeSH Terms

Brain
Delusions
Frontal Lobe
Hallucinations
Humans
Parietal Lobe
Perfusion
Schizophrenia
Temporal Lobe
Thinking
Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon