Brain Volumes in Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analysis in Over 18 000 Subjects

Although structural brain alterations in schizophrenia have been demonstrated extensively, their quantitative distribution has not been studied over the last 14 years despite advances in neuroimaging. Moreover, a volumetric meta-analysis has not been conducted in antipsychotic-naive patients. Therefore, meta-analysis on cross-sectional volumetric brain alterations in both medicated and antipsychotic-naive patients was conducted. Three hundred seventeen studies published from September 1, 1998 to January 1, 2012 comprising over 9000 patients were selected for meta-analysis, including 33 studies in antipsychotic-naive patients. In addition to effect sizes, potential modifying factors such as duration of illness,…