Resilience and relationship to a biological background in individuals with an at risk mental state

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K19749
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Psychiatric science
• Research Institution: Toho University
• Principal Investigator: Katagiri Naoyuki 東邦大学, 医学部, 講師 (70459759)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 精神病発症危険状態 / ARMS / 統合失調症 / レジリエンス / MRI / 探索眼球運動 / 線条体 / 脳梁

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Recent studies have revealed that several psychotic symptom changes observed in the ‘at risk mental state’ (ARMS) are associated with changes in the neural network in the brain. We investigated if structural changes in the corpus callosum（CC）and striatum those are supposed as a parts of brain networks are associated with recovery of sub-threshold psychotic symptoms in subjects with an ARMS who did not develop psychosis (ARMS-N).
For the ARMS-N subjects, improvement in negative symptoms significantly correlated with an increase in the volume of the central CC at follow-up. While, improvement in sub-threshold positive symptoms significantly correlated with an increase in volume in the right accumbens at follow up. These finding may suggest that a neurobiological‘resilience’is associated with symptom recovery.

Free Research Field

精神神経医学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、ARMS群のうち経過観察の後も精神病発症に至らないため、これまで偽陽性群とも呼ばれてきたARMS非発症群であったとしても脳内の広範なネットワークを担う脳梁や線条体で病的変化が生じている可能性を示した。一方で精神病症状の発現が阻止され改善する過程に同部位の体積変化などの生物学的変化が寄与する可能性を示した。これらの機序の解明はARMSにおける回復、いわゆるレジリエンスの機序の究明への端緒となり、精神病の発症を阻止するための包括的な治療戦略の構築に資するものである。