CAN COMPUTERIZED-TOMOGRAPHY BE USED TO PREDICT EARLY TREATMENT RESPONSE IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

The relationship between early treatment response and CT variables was investigated in 50 consecutively admitted patients with DSM-III schizophrenia. Treatment response was defined as the absolute BPRS improvement during patients' hospital stay and was found to be significantly correlated (P<0.05) with the frontal horn ratio (r = -0.36), ventricular ratio (r = -0.32), width of the third ventricle (r = -0.37), width of the frontal interhemispheric fissure (r = -0.33), and average width of the three largest cortical sulci (r = -0.46). According to the results of multiple regression analysis, 35% of the variance in the treatment response was accounted for by the average width of the three largest cortical sulci, the ventricular ratio and the frontal horn ratio. Thus, cerebral abnormalities associated with poor treatment response do not seem to be limited to one particular morphological site, but involve different brain regions.