- Title
- Cerebellar grey-matter deficits, cannabis use and first-episode schizophrenia in adolescents and young adults
- Creator
- Cohen, Martin; Rasser, Paul E; Peck, Greg; Carr, Vaughan J; Ward, Philip B; Thompson, Paul M; Johnston, Patrick; Baker, Amanda; Schall, Ulrich
- Relation
- International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology Vol. 15, Issue 3, p. 297-307
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S146114571100068X
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2012
- Description
- Epidemiological data link adolescent cannabis use to psychosis and schizophrenia, but its contribution to schizophrenia neuropathology remains controversial. First-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients show regional cerebral grey- and white-matter changes as well as a distinct pattern of regional grey-matter loss in the vermis of the cerebellum. The cerebellum possesses a high density of cannabinoid type 1 receptors involved in the neuronal diversification of the developing brain. Cannabis abuse may interfere with this process during adolescent brain maturation leading to ‘schizophrenia-like’ cerebellar pathology. Magnetic resonance imaging and cortical pattern matching techniques were used to investigate cerebellar grey and white matter in FES patients with and without a history of cannabis use and non-psychiatric cannabis users. In the latter group we found lifetime dose-dependent regional reduction of grey matter in the right cerebellar lobules and a tendency for more profound grey-matter reduction in lobule III with younger age at onset of cannabis use. The overall regional grey-matter differences in cannabis users were within the normal variability of grey-matter distribution. By contrast, FES subjects had lower total cerebellar grey-matter:total cerebellar volume ratio and marked grey-matter loss in the vermis, pedunculi, flocculi and lobules compared to pair-wise matched healthy control subjects. This pattern and degree of grey-matter loss did not differ from age-matched FES subjects with comorbid cannabis use. Our findings indicate small dose-dependent effects of juvenile cannabis use on cerebellar neuropathology but no evidence of an additional effect of cannabis use on FES cerebellar grey-matter pathology.
- Subject
- cerebellum; magnetic resonance imaging; parametric mapping; psychosis; THC
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1295500
- Identifier
- uon:19046
- Identifier
- ISSN:1461-1457
- Language
- eng
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