What Factors Influence Brain Health in Psychosis Patients?

Factors including body mass index, age, and substance use influence imaging phenotypes and various neurological measures in patients with psychosis, according to findings from a new study.

From June 26, 2014, to March 9, 2017, researchers evaluated 100 patients with schizophrenia, 40 patients with bipolar disorder, and 50 healthy volunteers (controls).
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Various measures such as cortical thickness, subcortical volumes, and white matter fractional anisotropy were recorded. Nonimaging measures associated with clinical features, cognition, substance use, psychological trauma, physical activity, and body mass index were also determined.

Ultimately, the present analyses included 92 patients with schizophrenia, 37 patients with bipolar disorder, and 48 controls. Results revealed significant covariation between imaging and nonimaging datasets that was independent of diagnosis.

Nonimaging variables including age and body mass index were found to be associated with multiple imaging phenotypes. In addition, the use of cannabis and other substances was found to be associated with subcortical volumes, and alcohol use was associated with white matter integrity.

Findings from multivariate models indicated that positive symptoms were associated with variates including global neuroimaging, cortical thickness, and task-related activation, whereas negative symptoms were associated with measures of subcortical volume. The researchers also observed an association of depression and anxiety with measures of white matter integrity.

“Multivariate analyses provide a more accurate characterization of the association between brain alterations and psychosis because they enable the modeling of other key factors that influence neuroimaging phenotypes,” the researchers concluded.

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Moser DA, Doucet GE, Lee WH, et al. Multivariate associations among behavioral, clinical, and multimodal imaging phenotypes in patients with psychosis [Published online March 7, 2018]. JAMA Psychiatry. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2017.4741.