White matter deficits in first episode schizophrenia: an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis.

Background: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been widely used in psychiatric research and has provided evidence of white matter abnormalities in first episode schizophrenia (FES). The goal of the present meta-analysis was to identify white matter deficits by DTI in FES.

Methods: A systematic search was conducted to collect DTI studies with voxel-wised analysis of the fractional anisotropy (FA) in FES.