In vivo occipital-frontal temperature-gradient in schizophrenia patients and its possible association with psychopathology: a magnetic resonance spectroscopy study.

Background: Accumulating data suggest that schizophrenia patients' mental status might be modulated by their core/brain temperature. Hence, we intended to assess in vivo brain temperature (Tb) of schizophrenia patients vs. healthy subjects and to evaluate its potential association with patients' mental status.

Methods: Absolute values of Tb were measured in 9 neuroleptic-treated schizophrenia patients and 10 healthy comparison subjects using 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Values were extracted by measuring the chemical shift between the peaks of water and N-acetyl-aspartate in the 1H MRS spectra.

Results: A substantial (about 1.1 degrees C) and significantly higher occipital-frontal temperature-gradient was found in the schizophrenia patients compared to the healthy controls (1.27 degrees C vs. 0.18 degrees C; p=0.032). Furthermore, a trend was found between the above mentioned occipital-frontal temperature-gradient in the schizophrenia patients and the severity of their psychopathology, as assessed by the total Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scores (r=0.61; p=0.08).

Conclusions: Our findings corroborate previous results indicating putative correlation between core/brain temperature and the mental status of schizophrenia patients, emphasizing the possible role of within patients decreased frontal temperature and a significant occipital-frontal temperature-gradient as modulators of psychopathology. In addition, the MRS technique used for brain temperature assessment seems to be a potential non-invasive method to assess in vivo absolute Tb in schizophrenia.