British psychiatrists said on Wednesday they were pioneering a new brain imaging technique to detect changes in the brain in the earliest stages of schizophrenia.

Just as cancer specialists have reported success in early detection and treatment of disease, psychiatrists are hoping to do the same with schizophrenia.

Early detection, before patients experience psychosis such as delusions or hearing voices, will allow doctors to start early treatment and may improve recovery chances.

Scientists have known that there are physical changes in the brain with schizophrenia but until now they did not realise the changes could occur in the earliest stages of the disease.

"In schizophrenia, we have had a romantic notion of intervening before the condition has developed, but so far our instruments for diagnosis have not been good enough to allow us to do so," said Dr Tonmoy Sharma of the Institute of Psychiatry in London.

But he said the results of his study showed that characteristic brain differences are present at a very early stage of the illness and that brain imaging may become a powerful predictor of future illness.

"Not only do we need to go in for early intervention but we need to see if we can prevent the eruption of psychosis and whether we can prevent the inevitable deterioration that we see in brain structure and function in these people," he said in a telephone interview.

PREVENTIVE PSYCHIATRY

Sharma used the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique on 68 people, including 37 who had their first psychosis within the past three months, and compared them with brain scans of healthy volunteers.

His research, which is published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, showed differences in three areas of the brain, suggesting the changes occur before patients start experiencing symptoms.

The researchers are focusing on the prodrome phase, one of the earliest stages of the disease before psychosis is apparent.

"In cancer, we've seen that screening people at risk can have a great effect on treatment success. With a suitable schizophrenia screening method, for the first time, preventive psychiatry becomes a realistic possibility," he said.

Schizophrenia is the most common form of severe mental illness. Its causes are still unknown but scientists know it affects chemicals in the brain and they believe there is a biological link which can predispose a person to the disease.

It affects about one person in a hundred. The illness usually begins in the late teens and early 20s and is characterised by hallucinations, delusions, hearing voices and changes in behaviour.

Men and women are equally affected but the age of onset is usually younger in men.

(From ChinaDaily)