MRI Studies

During the 1990s, researchers using MRI technology discovered that antipsychotics shrink the frontal lobes and cause an enlargement of the basal ganglia. In the “Follow-up Magnetic Resonance Imaging” study, researchers reported that the enlargement of the basal ganglia was associated with a worsening of both the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. This was powerful evidence of how the drugs cause chronic illness over time.

a) Increase in Caudate Nuclei Volumes of First-Episode Schizophrenia Patients Taking Antipsychotic Drugs.Chakos, M. American Journal of Psychiatry 151 (1994):1430-1436.

b) Neuroleptics in Progressive Structural Brain Abnormalities in Psychiatric Illness. Madsen, A. The Lancet 32 (1998):784-785.

c) Subcortical Volumes in Neuroleptic Naive and Treated Patients With Schizophrenia.Gur, R. American Journal of Psychiatry 155 (1998):1711-1717.

d) A Followup Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Schizophrenia.Gur, R. Archives of General Psychiatry 55 (1998):145-152.

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

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