A reconsideration of the relation of ventricular enlargement to duration of illness in schizophrenia

The size of the ventricles of 19 young hospitalized patients with chronic schizophrenia was compared with that of 29 same-age control subjects. The patients had a slightly but significantly larger bicaudate ratio. Analysis of these results in the context of previous studies of ventricular size and schizophrenia suggests that, contrary to current views, there is a direct relationship between size of ventricles and duration of schizophrenic illness. The authors argue that the conflicting results of different studies of ventricular size and schizophrenia can be reconciled by postulating that both clinical schizophrenia and ventricular enlargement are overt signs of an underlying neuronal degeneration that is hereditary and progressive.