Lack of Association Between Duration of Untreated Illness and Severity of Cognitive and Structural Brain Deficits at the First Episode of Schizophrenia

Abstract

The duration of untreated symptoms of schizophrenia, for which an association with an uncontrolled toxic brain process has been proposed, is unlikely to explain why first-episode patients with schizophrenia have widespread deficits in cognitive functioning and have detectable ventricular enlargement and some loss of cortical mass.