Cortical effects of quetiapine in first-episode schizophrenia: a preliminary functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Background: Quetiapine improves both psychotic symptoms and cognitive function in schizophrenia. The neural basis of these actions is poorly understood.

Methods: Three subject groups underwent a single functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session: drug-naive (n = 7) and quetiapine-treated samples of patients with schizophrenia (n = 8) and a healthy control group (n = 8). The fMRI session included an overt verbal fluency task and a passive auditory stimulation task.

Results: In the verbal fluency task, there was significantly increased activation in the left inferior frontal cortex in the quetiapine-treated patients and the healthy control sample compared with the drug-naive sample. During auditory stimulation, the healthy control group and stably treated group produced significantly greater activation in the superior temporal gyrus than the drug-naive sample.

Conclusions: Quetiapine treatment is associated with altered blood oxygen level-dependent responses in both the prefrontal and temporal cortex that cannot be accounted for by improved task performance subsequent to drug treatment.