No evidence for structural brain changes in young adolescents at ultra high risk for psychosis

ObjectiveThe onset of psychosis is thought to be preceded by neurodevelopmental changes in the brain. However, the timing of these changes has not been established. We investigated structural brain changes in a sample of young adolescents (12–18 years) at ultra high-risk for psychosis (UHR).MethodsStructural MRI data from young UHR subjects (n = 54) and typically developing, matched controls (n = 54) were acquired with a 1.5 Tesla scanner and compared.ResultsNone of the measures differed between UHR subjects and controls.ConclusionsOur results do not support the presence of gross neuroanatomical changes in young UHR subjects. This suggests that early changes are too subtle to detect with conventional imaging techniques. Therefore, changes observed in older cohorts may only onset later developmentally or occur secondary to prodromal symptoms.