News Releases & Research Results Study finds common abnormalities in the white matter across multiple psychiatric disorders―schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share similar abnormalities

Results of research led by Ryota Hashimoto, Director of the Department of Pathology of Mental Diseases, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry; Daisuke Koshiyama, MD, Professor Kiyoto Kasai of the Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo; and others

• The Japanese Cognitive Genetics Collaborative Research Organization (COCORO) conducted large-scale multi-institutional cooperative studies in which diffusion weighted MRI data of four major psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and major depressive disorder) were collected by 12 research institutions, and the cerebral white matter structure of each disorder was analyzed.
• The analyses found that the cerebral white matter alterations in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder showed similar pathophysiological characteristics and that the brain abnormalities in autism spectrum disorder and major depressive disorder were mild, with biological characteristics similar to those of healthy subjects.
• The study results are expected to help develop objective diagnostic methods for psychiatric disorders that are in progress in recent years.

This project was conducted with the support of Strategic International Brain Science Research Promotion Program and Brain Mapping by Integrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies by AMED.

The results of research were published in the online version of Molecular Psychiatry on November 29.

Koshiyama D, et al. White matter microstructural alterations across four major psychiatric disorders: mega-analysis study in 2937 individuals Molecular Psychiatry
DOI：10.1038/s41380-019-0553-7