White Matter Abnormalities in First-Episode Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study

Abstract

These findings suggest that white matter pathology is present early in the course of schizophrenia and may be less pronounced than has been found in previous diffusion tensor imaging studies of patients with chronic illness. Further, these data are consistent with hypotheses regarding frontotemporal dysfunction and the failure of left-hemisphere lateralization in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.