Choroid Plexus Enlargement and Allostatic Load in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Although schizophrenia is a brain disorder, increasing evidence suggests that there may be body-wide involvement in this illness. However, direct evidence of brain structures involved in the presumed peripheral-central interaction in schizophrenia is still unclear. Seventy-nine previously treatment-naïve first-episode schizophrenia patients who were within 2-week antipsychotics initial stabilization, and 41 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled in the study. Group differences in subcortical brain regional structures measured by MRI and the subclinical cardiovascular, metabolic, immune, and neuroendocrine biomarkers as indexed by allostatic load, and their associations were explored. Compared with controls, patients with schizophrenia had significantly higher allostatic load (P =. 001). Lateral ventricle (P