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Brain Anatomy in Schizophrenia: Discussion

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Search for the Causes of Schizophrenia

Abstract

I would like to begin my discussion by congratulating Drs. Bogerts, Gattaz, and Nasrallah for excellent reviews of recent developments in the study of anatomical deviations in the brains of patients with schizophrenia. It is quite apparent from their papers and from their work that this area of research has produced the most compelling evidence to date that schizophrenia is associated with structural abnormalities of the brain. In this discussion I shall make a few general comments and then address several specific points that were raised by these papers. I am reminded of the words of Spielmeyer, who wrote in 1930, “The aforementioned findings suffice, in my opinion, to establish the organic basis of this malady, but they do not suffice to separate this process and to establish it as an enitity” [1]. The situation appears similar today. We have overwhelming evidence that anatomical deviations of the brain are found in many cases of this disorder, but a pathognomomic lesion or a specific pathological process has yet to be demonstrated.

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Weinberger, D.R. (1990). Brain Anatomy in Schizophrenia: Discussion. In: Häfner, H., Gattaz, W.F. (eds) Search for the Causes of Schizophrenia. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74881-3_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74881-3_21

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-74883-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-74881-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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